We are excited to welcome The Colorado College State of the Rockies Project as a new Roper Center data provider. The State of the Rockies Project explores conservation, the environment, and related social issues through research, education, and outreach. As part of their mission to advance the understanding of socio-environmental challenges facing the Rocky Mountain West, The State of the Rockies Project conducted the 2019 Conservation in the West Poll. The poll, which was conducted January 2-9, surveyed 3,204 registered voters in seven Midwest states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
The 2019 Conservation in the West Poll provides insight into public opinion regarding a variety of issues related to conservation and the environment. Respondents were asked about the seriousness of various environmental problems in their state–including loss of habitat for fish and wildlife, climate change, water pollution, and wildfires–as well as the importance of the outdoor economy in the Western United States. The survey also included questions about national environment and conservation issues, such as the Senate’s vote on a new Secretary of the Interior, how Congress should handle making decisions regarding national public lands, and whether Congress should restore the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which had expired in September 2018.
Other topics covered in the poll include changes in environmental rules and standards, preferred energy sources, increasing taxes to pay for conservation and water protections, and the importance of funding various conservation projects, such as managing forests in order to prevent wildfires and conserving critical wildlife habitat, and opinions regarding efforts to protect migrating wildlife in Wyoming.
The Colorado College State of the Rockies Project: 2019 Conservation in the West Poll is now available at Roper as part of our Recently Developed Methods Collection. Additional resources on conservation and the environment can be found on our Topics at a Glance: Environment page, which offers prepared iPoll and dataset searches of our Longstanding Methods collection as well as interpretive analysis and related data charts.