A vast majority of Montana voters oppose elected officials voting to rollback environmental protections and resource management policies on public lands, according to a recent poll on conservation attitudes among mountain west states.
But at the same time, Montanans expressed near-record low levels of concern, though still a majority, about the effects of climate change during the last decade-and-a-half, with a strong split across partisan lines.
That’s according to the 16th-annual Colorado College State of the Rockies Conservation in the West Poll, which surveyed the views of Montanans and voters in seven other western states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The bipartisan survey was conducted by Republican pollster Lori Weigel of New Bridge Strategy and Democratic pollster Miranda Everitt of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.
Ian Johnson, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Sustainability at Colorado College, said the poll provides “a rare longitudinal data set that lets us track how public attitudes have shifted over time.”
“Throughout the West, communities are now grappling with pressure on land and water, wildfire risk, competing energy priorities and questions about stewardship that define both livelihoods and quality of life,” Johnson said on a press call. “This poll helps us move beyond any assumptions and provides clear bipartisan insight into what Westerners actually think and what they want their leaders to prioritize.”
Results from the poll show record or near-record high support for conservation initiatives across the intermountain states, with many stances crossing demographic and partisan lines. Of the Montanans surveyed, 27% of respondents self-described as Republican, 26% self-described as Democrats, and 45% as Independent or other — the highest of the eight states.
Throughout the poll’s duration, the surveys have asked voters how they view conservation issues around clean air, clean water, public lands and wildlife compared to other key issues like oil and gas development and the economy.
In election years, some questions focus specifically on how key environmental, wildlife and public lands policy issues at the state or federal level affect how voters feel about elected officials.
Across the spectrum, 85% of voters said conservation issues are important in deciding whether to support an elected official. In Montana, 84% of voters responded the same way, with 41% saying those issues are “very important,” the second highest behind New Mexico. A record number of voters — 76% across all states — said they would prefer their member of Congress emphasize protecting resources on public lands over maximizing energy production.
One major issue the poll looked at is the rollback of laws that protect public lands, water and wildlife that have been a major policy focus of the Trump administration.
Many public lands and conservation issues have support that crosses partisan lines. Compared to 2019, the states surveyed showed a 12% increase in those characterizing those rollbacks as “extremely” or “very serious,” to 84%. On a partisan breakdown, 94% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans have serious problems with the rollback of environmental protections.
Funding cuts have been another major policy issue during Trump’s second administration, with budget proposals floated at times with vast cuts to public land agencies, such as the National Park Service. Cutting funding for land management agencies is extremely unpopular with Western voters, the survey shows, with 86% of respondents concerned about cuts, including 75% of self-identified MAGA supporters.
On specific policy proposals, Montanans overwhelmingly favored pro-conservation initiatives, including requiring oil and gas companies pay for clean-up and land restoration costs (95%); expressing concern over habitat loss for fish and wildlife (85%); managing public lands to ensure there are outdoor spaces free of light pollution at night (82%); opposing reducing protections for species listed under the Endangered Species Act (68%); and keeping existing national monument designations for public lands in place (90%)
Several questions related to policy proposals have been spotlighted by the federal government in recent months.
Montana voters led all western states in opposing the selling of national public lands to private companies for oil, gas and mining development, with 83% of voters in opposition.
“It’s very intense, Colorado, Montana, even Wyoming, which is a very energy-intensive economy, is strongly opposed to this concept,” Weigel said in the press call. “These aren’t things that people are feeling real shy about. They are willing to offer an opinion.”
Members of Montana’s federal delegation have long stumped on environmental bona fides when running for election, and last year all four Republican members took stances against proposals to sell federal land, including co-founding bipartisan caucuses specifically in response to discussions over selloffs.
But some actions of congressional members seem to be at odds with the majority of Montana voters surveyed in the Conservation in the West poll, who overwhelmingly favor prioritizing conservation over extractive industries.
Seventy-five percent of Montana voters — and a record 76% across all states — said they oppose allowing Congress to override local resource management plans to increase mining and oil and gas development on national public lands.
A series of votes taken in Congress have overturned Biden-era resource management plans, including one that reopened 30 million acres in eastern Montana to coal mining, which Montana’s officials cheered.
In a similar vote last month, the U.S. House voted to overturn a ban on mining on National Forest land near the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, a vote that Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke whipped votes for.
“Broad majorities across party lines want to protect natural resources rather than prioritize energy development,” Everitt said.
Among the environmental concerns surveyed, climate change remained low among Montana voters, with just 63% saying it is a serious problem. Only Idaho (62%) and Wyoming (49%) expressed lower levels of concern. But the survey shows that the topic has one of the strongest partisan divides, with 93% of Democrats, 82% of Independents and 55% of Republicans concerned about climate change.
Another partisan split is over the future of energy in the country.
A majority of all voters — 51% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats — said America should prioritize expanding clean, renewable energy to meet the nation’s energy needs and reduce the need for coal, oil and natural gas.
Responses by voters answering “Which of the following do you think should be the highest priority for meeting America’s energy needs.” Extraction-heavy Wyoming is the only state where a majority of voters prefer prioritizing fossil fuels, with Montana a distant second, with 34% supporting the prioritization of fossil fuels compared to 65% support for focusing on expanding renewable energy.
“Really, what we see here is people kind of underscoring that they want to keep public lands public, protect wildlife habitat, protect future generations,” Everitt said.
The Conservation in the West poll surveyed at least 400 registered voters in each of eight Western states for a total of 3,419-voter sample, which included an over-sample of Black and Native American voters. The survey was conducted between Jan. 2-18, 2026, and the effective margin of error is +/- 2.4% at the 95% confidence interval for the total sample; and at most +/- 4.9% for each state.
The full survey and individual state surveys are available on the State of the Rockies Project website.
Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.
