The 15th annual Colorado College poll of Westerners' views find they support conservation over development of public lands by large majorities/NPS file

While the Trump administration is determined to "drill, baby, drill," for new energy reserves, Westerners want elected officials to prioritize conservation over development of public lands, according to the latest Conservation in the West poll.

The poll, the 15th annual survey conducted by Colorado College, shows that nearly three-quarters of those who live in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — including self-identified “MAGA” voters — don't want national monuments to be reduced in size or opened to energy development. A similar number want Congress to put more emphasis on clean water, clean air, and wildlife habitat than on maximizing the amount of public land available for oil and gas drilling or mining.

“The consensus favoring public lands conservation remains consistent and strong in the West,” said Katrina Miller-Stevens, former director of the State of the Rockies Project and an associate professor at Colorado College. “Westerners do not want to see a rollback of national monument protections and there is no mandate for oil and gas development. Voters from all political ideologies are united in support of public land conservation in the West.”

While President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are overseeing a drastic reduction in the federal workforce, those surveyed for the poll overwhelmingly want federal lands managed by rangers, scientists, firefighters, and "other specialists in the field, compared to just 9 percent who prefer decisions be made by new political appointees."

Three-quarters of those surveyed voiced bipartisan opposition to cuts in the budgets for the federal land-management agencies.

The poll surveyed at least 400 registered voters in each of the eight Western states for a total 3,316-voter sample, which included an over-sample of Black and Native American voters. The survey was conducted between January 3-17, 2025, and the effective margin of error is +2.46% at the 95% confidence interval for the total sample; and at most +4.9% for each state. 

“It’s clear that a majority of Westerners want their leaders to champion policies that safeguard wildlife and include full collaboration with tribes in the stewardship of public lands and waters. The poll results also show the popularity of recent oil and gas reforms that require industry to pay their fair share for using public lands,” said David Willms, associate vice president for public lands at the National Wildlife Federation. “And at a time when thousands of federal employees at the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service have lost their jobs, this poll shows that a vast majority of people in the West trust career professionals to responsibly steward public lands.”

Camilla Simon, executive director of Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors (HECHO), said the "results reaffirm what we already know: Western communities deeply value our public lands for their cultural, historical, ecological, recreational, and economic significance. An overwhelming 89 percent of voters support keeping national monument designations in place, such as Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument."

"Furthermore, Westerners understand the importance of managing our public lands actively and properly, with 75 percent opposing funding cuts to the agencies that steward these landscapes," she continued. "Our leaders must listen and act accordingly to protect these irreplaceable places and resources for present and future generations."

 Among the poll's results:

• 92% want to keep the requirement that oil and gas companies, not taxpayers, have to pay to clean up lands after drilling is finished. 
• 72% say they would prefer that Congress put more emphasis on clean water, clean air, and wildlife habitat than on maximizing the amount of public land available for oil and gas drilling or mining. 
• 72% say they are opposed to removing protections on national monuments that prohibit drilling and other development.
• 86% support Tribes having greater input on public lands management decisions. 
• 87% support career professionals like rangers and scientists to make public lands decisions.
• 75% oppose reducing funding for land management agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service. 
• 63 percent oppose reducing protections for some of the rare plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act.
• 60 percent oppose expanding the amount of national forest and other public lands available to private companies for logging.
• 84 percent support maintaining or increasing the royalty rates that oil companies pay for producing oil and gas on national public lands.
• 89 percent support managing public lands to ensure there are more outdoor places free of light pollution to see the stars at night.
• 86 percent support ensuring Native American tribes have greater input into decisions made about areas within national public lands that contain sacred or culturally significant places to their tribes.