Support for conservation at an all-time high
According to the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, Western voters want conservation. And they’ll seek out candidates who want it too.
Conservation remains a winning issue among voters in the West, according to the results of the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll. Since the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project launched the annual poll in 2011, voters have consistently voiced their support for clean air and water, healthy wildlife habitats, responsible energy production, and the conservation of America’s public lands.
These issues are so important to Western voters that 85 percent — with strong majorities across all parties — say a candidate’s support for issues involving clean water, clean air, wildlife, and public lands are important in deciding whether to support an elected official, even when compared to other issues like the economy, health care, and education. Specifically, 70 percent of voters prefer that their congressional representatives place more emphasis on protecting clean water, air quality, and wildlife habitat than on maximizing the amount of public lands available for oil and gas drilling and mining.
“There may be a lot that divides voters across the country, but in the West there is nearly universal consensus in favor of conservation,” said Katrina Miller-Stevens, Director of the State of the Rockies Project and an associate professor at Colorado College. “Not only do voters prefer conservation when asked how public lands and water should be utilized, but issues involving water, air, land, and wildlife are top of mind when they make their voting decisions.”
For the fourth year in a row, the poll shows that a large majority of Westerners support the creation of new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and Tribal protected areas. President Joe Biden has the opportunity to fulfill voters’ wishes by establishing new national monuments using his authority under the Antiquities Act. In addition to meeting voters’ interests, designating new national monuments would solidify his position as the president with the greatest first-term conservation record in recent history. But the clock is ticking — with just a few months left, President Biden still needs to protect at least 215,000 more acres in order to set the record for the most public land protected by any recent president in their first term.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of opportunities for Biden to achieve this goal. Protecting the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument in Oregon would add another one million acres to President Biden’s conservation record. There are also opportunities to protect public lands in California, including the Chuckwalla and Medicine Lake Highlands national monument proposals, and the proposed expansions of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. And in Colorado, 92 percent of voters support the designation of the Dolores Canyons National Monument, which would protect over 500,000 acres, safeguarding biodiversity, cultural resources, and outdoor recreation.
National monument designations would also help the Biden administration make progress toward its goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, an initiative that is supported by a majority of voters in every state tested. Black voters especially support 30x30, according to the poll — 85 percent champion the initiative and 9 in 10 support new protected sites like national monuments.
Voters also see the outdoors as an important part of their wellbeing and lifestyles. Nearly unanimously, Westerners said spending time in nature is a way to address growing rates of anxiety, depression, and mental health problems in young people. Voters are also finding ways to engage with nature beyond outdoor recreation — 57 percent sought out news on nature, wildlife, or recreation, and nearly 40 percent of voters donated money or volunteered to help conservation, used recreation or nature apps, or listened to podcasts focused on nature or the environment.
For the first time in the poll’s history, prioritizing conservation over maximizing energy production received majority support among Republicans and Independents. Across the board, voters prefer that their congressional representatives prioritize protecting clean water, air quality, and wildlife habitats while providing opportunities for recreation on public lands rather than ensuring more domestic energy production by maximizing oil and gas drilling and mining on public lands. Moreover, 90 percent support requiring oil and gas companies, rather than federal and state governments, to pay for all of the clean-up and land restoration costs that are required when drilling is finished. The Biden administration is trying to address some of these concerns — the Interior department is right now working on finalizing a proposed rule that would hold oil and gas companies more accountable for cleanup costs, among other long-overdue reforms.
The views of Western voters are clear: regardless of political affiliation, conservation on public lands is a priority, and one that voters will use to determine which candidates to support in 2024. Since the 2011 Conservation in the West poll, Westerners have become more concerned about the loss of natural areas, coinciding with increased support for oil and gas leasing reform and public lands protections. Now more than ever, voters seek conservation-minded candidates who understand the centrality of healthy public lands to Western ways of life.
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox, or subscribe to our podcast, The Landscape.
