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Colorado College's State of the Rockies Project released the 12th annual Conservation in the West poll yesterday. The poll surveys at least 400 registered voters in eight Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
This year, the results show a spike in concern over issues like drought, inadequate water supplies, wildfires, the loss of wildlife habitats and natural spaces, and climate change. 69% of voters are concerned about the future of nature, meaning land, water, air, and wildlife, a notable jump from 61 percent in last year’s poll. “We definitely see some extreme concerns about water,” pollster Lori Weigel of New Bridge Strategy said. “We’re consistently seeing now folks really concerned about droughts and reduced snowpack.”
Katrina Miller-Stevens, Director of the State of the Rockies Project and an associate professor at Colorado College said, “We are seeing a perfect storm of threats that are driving higher levels of concern than ever before for the state of our lands and water in the Mountain West. Not surprisingly, most voters are aligning behind policies that would help mitigate threats by conserving and protecting more outdoor spaces.”
Westerners’ heightened concerns about climate change and its impacts are matched with strong consensus behind proposals to conserve and protect the country’s outdoors. For example, 77% support the 30x30 goal to conserve 30% of America's lands and waters by 2030, while 80% support creating new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and tribal protected areas to protect historic sites or areas for outdoor recreation. Dave Metz, one of the pollsters, said of the prominence of conservation and environmental issues to Western voters, “This distinguishes this part of the country from the rest of nation.”
For the second consecutive year the poll examined the intersection of race with views on conservation priorities, with the results showing notably higher percentages of Black voters, Latino voters, and Native American voters to be concerned about climate change, pollution of rivers, lakes, and streams, and the impact of oil and gas drilling on our land, air, and water.
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Today, we face a fork in the road. One path will take us backward, to more oil development and the pollution, climate change and unsustainable development we see wherever oil development takes place. 
