A motorcyclist enjoys the view from Bird Woman Falls Overlook along Going-to-the-Sun Road. (Photo via Glacier National Park)
A poll released last month confirmed support for conservation policies is high among Montanans and a majority of voters are concerned over the future of public lands, clean air and water — positions at odds with actions taken by many of Montana’s elected officials.
However, Montanans’ views on climate change have drastically shifted over the last year, with the percentage saying climate change is not a problem at its highest level since 2020.
That’s according to the 15th-annual Colorado College’s 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 Dave Metz of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.
Results from the poll show high overall support for conservation initiatives across the West, with many stances crossing state, partisan and demographic lines. Of the Montanans surveyed, 40% of respondents self-described as conservative, 41% self-described as moderate, and 18% as liberal.
“The consensus favoring public lands conservation remains consistent and strong in the West,” Katrina Miller-Stevens, former director of the State of the Rockies Project, which runs the annual poll, said in a statement. “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.”
Following the 2024 election, which put Republican President Donald Trump in office with a GOP-controlled Congress, pollsters 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. Across the spectrum, 72% of voters said they prefer their elected officials in Congress place more emphasis on protecting water, air quality, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities rather than maximizing domestic energy development — the highest percent in poll history. In Montana, 68% of voters responded the same way, a single-point drop from the 2024 survey, and the lowest of all western states except Wyoming.
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%); putting conservation on a higher priority level than oil and gas drilling (78%); allowing private landowners to create conservation easements (92%); opposing reducing protections for species listed under the Endangered Species Act (63%); and letting career professionals such as rangers, scientists and firefighters make decisions about public lands, water, and wildlife rather than newly appointed officials (86%).
However, Montanans’ views on climate change have shifted from last year, with only 63% of respondents saying climate change is an issue, a 10% drop from 2024, and the lowest level since 2020. Roughly the same portion — 65% — of Montanans said they support reducing carbon pollution that contributes to climate change. Last year, the Montana Supreme Court ruled to uphold a decision in the Held v. Montana court case that found Montanans’ right to a “clean and healthful environment” included a right to a stable climate system.
In response, a series of bills is currently passing through the Montana Legislature aimed at altering the Montana Environmental Policy Act, some which would limit state agencies from basing permitting decisions on environmental analyses.
Several questions related to policy proposals have been spotlighted by the federal government in recent weeks.
Thousands of federal workers have been laid off by the Trump administration since Valentine’s Day, including many working at public lands agencies. But respondents to the poll showed overwhelming support and approval for agencies tasked with overseeing national forests, parks, and other public land. 
Voters overwhelmingly approve of the work done by the National Park Service (86%), U.S. Forest Service (79%), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (75%) and the Bureau of Land Management (62%). Three quarters of all voters said they oppose cutting funding for those agencies.
A majority of all voters — 83% of Republicans and 97% of Democrats — said national monuments should keep existing protections. During President Trump’s first term, he reduced the size of two monuments in Utah, and federal officials last month announced a review of national monument boundaries.
Another question asked whether voters support expanding commercial logging operations by private companies on national forest and other public lands. Fifty-five percent of Montanans — 60% of all western respondents — opposed expanding logging operations.
But over the weekend, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to examine ways to bypass environmental regulations, including endangered species protections, to ramp up timber production across 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands, according to the New York Times.
Among all those surveyed, one in 10 reported visiting national public lands in the last year, with 42% visiting at least six times.
“This is something that really makes this region of the country unique,” pollster Dave Metz said during a press call. “The large amount of public lands and its accessibility to areas of all the population centers in these states really makes it something that is not just an abstract concept to voters in the west, it’s something that’s part of their day to day lives and it’s a central part of what they enjoy about living in the west.”
The 2025 Colorado College Conservation in the West Poll surveyed at least 400 registered voters in each of the eight western states — 404 Montanans — for a total sample size of 3,316 voters, which included an over-sample of Black and Native American voters. The survey was conducted between Jan. 3 and Jan. 17. The poll’s effective margin of error is +2.46% at the 95% confidence interval for the total sample, and, at most, +4.9% for each state. The poll is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The full survey and individual state surveys are available on the State of the Rockies website.