Patagonia was onto something ages ago when they encouraged people to “Vote the Environment.” A new poll has found that 92% voters in Western states who identify themselves as conservative consider themselves sportsmen, and they consider protecting and managing wild lands as essential to the economic interests of their states. Among the findings:

• 85% of sportsmen in the West say that “even with state budget problems, we should still find money to protect and maintain” their state’s “land, water and wildlife;” 81% say the same about state parks.
• 75% consider cuts to funding for state parks, protection of natural areas and water quality as a serious problem
• 75% say that we can protect land and water and have a strong economy at the same time.
• 92% agree that “Our national parks, forests, monuments, and wildlife areas are an essential part of their state’s economy.”

Wend magazine has many more details. Now if we could just get more politicians to pay attention, regardless of their affiliations and posturing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.