Poll: Huge Majority Wants to Protect Public Lands

2022 University of Montana Voter Survey finds overwhelming support for protecting Montana's irreplaceable wildlands
The sun sets over the Blackfoot River (photo by Chris Sawicki)
The sun sets over the Blackfoot River (photo by Chris Sawicki)
Category: Insights | | 4 min read

Earlier today, the University of Montana released its biennial Voter Survey on Public Lands. The results reinforced what’s been evident for years: a massive majority of Montanans across the political and geographic spectrum care deeply about conserving our wild public lands.

Commissioned by the University of Montana’s Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative and conducted by a group of bipartisan pollsters, the survey asked a randomized sample of 500 registered voters across Montana what they thought about public lands issues. The questions ranged from the general, like how population growth is impacting our public lands, to specifics like whether those surveyed support initiatives like the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act and Lincoln Prosperity Proposal.

The results demonstrated an overwhelming level of support for public lands protections, particularly for many of our key programs and initiatives. It’s clear evidence that Montanans are united in wanting to protect our public lands, and we’re committed to leading the effort to protect our irreplaceable wildlands and the wildlife, clean water, solitude, and strong communities they support.

The Highlights

Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act

A whopping 83% of voters surveyed said they support the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act, which will add nearly 80,000 acres to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and Mission Mountains Wilderness Areas and safeguard the four most crucial tributaries of the storied Blackfoot River, helping sustain the health of wildlife, native trout populations, and the river itself.

Support for the BCSA continues to climb. In 2018, it was supported by 73% of survey respondents, while in 2020 the number climbed to 75%. The continued growth of support for this historic act, championed by Senator Jon Tester, is yet more evidence that our entire delegation needs to abide by the wishes of their constituents and throw their full support behind this historic piece of legislation.

Lincoln Prosperity Proposal

In its second year being included in the survey, the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal was supported by 71% of voters, a remarkable level of support for a relatively new initiative. The proposal would create the 40,000-acre Nevada Mountain Wilderness – Montana’s first new wilderness area in nearly 40 years – add 16,000 acres to the Scapegoat Wilderness, and protect an additional 63,000 acres near the town of Lincoln. It’s the result of years of hard work by Wild Montana and our partners to develop a vision for protecting public lands near Lincoln and along the Continental Divide.

Gallatin Forest Partnership

77% of voters surveyed said they support a proposal to protect the wilderness study area in the Gallatin Range near Yellowstone National Park by creating new wilderness and other designations that would maintain existing recreation and limit new development. This is a central pillar of the Gallatin Forest Partnership Agreement, which would protect over 250,000 acres of national forest between Bozeman and Yellowstone. Wild Montana is one of the founding members of the Partnership and, following the release of the 2022 Custer Gallatin National Forest Plan, we’re leading the charge to introduce legislation that will expand the protections in the Forest Plan and make them permanent, protecting the habitat, solitude, clean water, and recreation that make this place so special.

Wilderness Study Areas

According to the survey, 72% of Montana voters want to continue protecting wilderness study areas, conserving them for recreation and wildlife habitat. Just 6% of voters want to eliminate WSA protections. This is consistent with everything Montanans did to defeat legislation, introduced by Senator Steve Daines, that would have stripped protections from over 800,000 acres of wilderness study areas. Residents across the state have made it clear that the future of WSAs should be determined by locally driven collaborative processes, rather than top-down legislation designed to strip protection from some of Montana’s wildest places.

Public Lands Funding

The survey shows that 82% of Montanans want state lawmakers to continue dedicating a portion of recreational marijuana taxes to secure permanent public access, protect working lands, and improve our outdoor opportunities to hunt, fish, and camp. That’s a clear mandate to lawmakers to continue using this revenue to improve everyone’s public access and outdoor opportunities. Back in 2020, voters made it clear that this revenue should be used to sustain our outdoor way of life, and this is yet more evidence that lawmakers need to respect their constituents’ wishes and ensure this money supports our parks, trails, wildlife, and communities.

Other Takeaways

Support wasn’t limited to place-based proposals here in Montana. Voters also expressed strong support for general conservation measures, national initiatives, and giving Indigenous people a larger role in managing public lands considered sacred or historically important.   

  • 79% say it’s important for Native American tribes to have a strong role in helping to manage public lands they consider to be sacred or historically important to them. We acknowledge that public lands were predicated on the forcible removal of Indigenous people from their ancestral lands and ways. We’re committed to reimagining the conservation movement so it truly honors the many ways people connect to, relate to, and understand the places that are now managed as public land.

  • 78% support the President’s ability to protect existing public lands as national monuments. This authority was crucial in creating the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, and we’ve proudly stood up to defend the Antiquities Act from repeated attack.

One final note: the survey results’ strong support for conservation reinforces our elected officials’ responsibility to act decisively to protect Montana’s incredible wild public lands. These places are treasured by an incredible variety of people across our state, and I hope you’ll join me in urging our elected officials to take meaningful action to protect them without delay.

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