UM poll: Montanans back federal land, rangers and public participation

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) Regardless of their political leanings or where they live in the state, Montanans consistently value their public lands and want to conserve them, even though their elected representatives tend not to, according to a Montana-centric poll.

On Wednesday, the University of Montana’s Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative released the results of its biennial 2026 Voter Survey on Public Lands, which shows that Montanans continue to rate public land and wildlife conservation as high priorities, while recent environmental trends and federal actions have served to further strengthen their support on some issues.

From March 19-25, New Bridge Strategies, a Republican pollster, and FM3, a Democratic pollster, polled 515 Montanans, using phone calls and online surveys. While they’ve repeated some questions each year since 2014 to measure shifts over time - there weren’t many - they also added some new questions to probe voters’ opinions on recent public land changes. The margin of error was slightly more than 4%.

“The intensity of the support this time surpasses anything in the past. And it’s bipartisan,” said UM Initiative director Rick Graetz during a press conference. “It’s so important to get across to elected officials that this is what people want - pay attention. Over the 12 years we’ve been doing this polling, the support for public land protection has not only held, but it’s growing. And the opposition to the selling or transfer of these lands is very durable and trending upward.”

The question about whether voters would support a ban on selling or transferring federal public lands really caught pollsters' attention. More than 80% of respondents were supportive - including 80% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats - and two-thirds were strongly supportive.

Last year, during the Congressional debate over the Big Beautiful Bill, Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, sponsored an amendment that mandated the sale of up to 3 million acres of federal land to generate proceeds that could pay for tax cuts. The amendment was withdrawn. But, the Department of the Interior also started working last year with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, creating a task force to free up “underutilized” federal land for housing construction. The poll results indicate it would not go over well in Montana.

“I think it’s worth noting that when we talk about ‘bans,’ that’s one of the strongest words we ever use in terms of any policy proposals. So, the fact that they’re in support of banning something is really notable,” said pollster Lori Weigel of New Bridge Strategies. “That support for banning the sale or transfer of public lands is widespread.”

Another standout response was to a question about whether federal agencies should hold public meetings and allow public comment on federal projects. Almost 100% of those polled said it was very important for agencies to continue to include the public, while 70% said it was extremely important.

That stands in direct contrast to a number of proposals by Congress and the Trump administration that have diminished the public process outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act. Federal agencies have been shortening public comment periods; using expanded categorical exclusions to eliminate public input; limited consideration only to economic, not environmental, costs; and in some cases, as with the recent Forest Service reorganization, taking but not considering comment. And now, the SPEED Act has been introduced in Congress that would further weaken NEPA.

Similarly, two-thirds of voters oppose reducing environmental reviews and public participation to fast-track the approval of the Sheep Creek mine in the headwaters of the Bitterroot River, while half of voters strongly oppose it. A mining company, US Critical Minerals, is exploring old mineral rights in the Sheep Creek drainage in hopes of extracting rare-earth minerals. The Trump administration has added the Sheep Creek mine to the FAST-41 list, which fast-tracks critical mineral production by limiting environmental review and reducing permitting requirements as part of his American Energy Dominance program.

Since Montana just experienced one of the warmest, driest winters on record and is heading into its fourth summer of drought, it’s clear from the poll that residents are worried. When asked about seven issues affecting public lands, Montanans are most concerned about low snowpack, drought and loss of access to national forests, with around three-quarters of voters saying the situations are very serious. That represents a jump of 17 to 18 points since 2024 in the percentage of voters concerned about drought and low snowpack.

Data centers are a new threat, especially when it comes to energy and water use. When drought is already a concern, it’s not surprising that 70% of voters feel data centers will negatively affect water supplies, in addition to energy bills and grid reliability.

Around 60% of voters are very concerned about last year’s firing and resignation of thousands of public land servants, from rangers to scientists; funding cuts to federal land agencies; and overall loss of open land to development. About a third of those voters were extremely concerned. And while the cuts and firings prompt more concern in western Montana - 65% in Missoula and 63% in Bozeman - than eastern Montana - 55% in Great Falls and 60% in Billings - it still worries more than half of voters. More than 60% think the funding cuts will hurt wildland fire management, backlogged maintenance and wildlife management and conservation.

While 85% of voters want increased funding for federal road and infrastructure maintenance, two-thirds of voters don’t want that funding to be taken out of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That scenario was floated in June 2025, when the Trump Administration’s 2026 budget proposal gutted the fund by diverting roughly 43% to other needs, with a 90% cut to critical projects to protect all federal lands.

But Congress passed the Land and Water Conservation Fund in 1964 to use offshore oil and gas royalties to pay for land and water conservation. It was meant to create parks, fishing access sites and other public land, and that’s where 67% of Montana voters want the money to go.

When it comes to roads, Montanans don’t want more of them built in undeveloped forest areas. The poll shows four out of five voters support the Roadless Rule, and almost three in five strongly support it. Two-thirds of Republicans back the Roadless Rule while 86% of both Independents and Democrats support it.

That issue was one of the few where there was a difference of almost 20 points between voters of different political parties. And that’s the only demographic that really seemed to produce a difference, Weigel said, even though the pollsters could parse voters by gender, age, education level, rural vs. city and even the number of years lived in the state.

“There’s a higher concern in the east about drought. But conversely, on loss of access to national forest, there was higher concern in the west than the east. But again, it’s not like it was night-and-day, it’s just a little bit of a distinction. It’s usually within 10 points when we look at overall support,” Weigel said. “Party is just more stark, but it’s just degrees of support or opposition.”

A familiar question for this poll and the Rocky Mountain College Conservation in the West poll is whether voters consider conservation issues to be important when voting for an elected official. Nine-in-10 said conservation was at least somewhat, if not very important. That really hasn’t changed in 12 years except 43% now say it’s at least somewhat important, compared to 38% in 2016.

Ben Super, Montana Conservation Voters executive director, said the poll shows Montanans want leaders who stand up for public lands, who are accountable and who show up.

“People are deeply concerned about the real and growing threats facing our public lands and communities — from industrial-scale data centers straining our water and energy resources, to risky mining proposals at the headwaters of treasured rivers, to worsening drought and wildfire conditions made worse by inadequate federal investment and staffing. These are not abstract issues. They are immediate, local, and personal for Montanans. They are directly tied to decisions being made in Washington, D.C.,” Super said in a statement.

Montana’s Congressional delegation opposed Sen. Lee’s public land sale proposal, but they’ve made several votes that don’t conserve public lands, such as voting to remove a ban on mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness in Minnesota.

Sen. Steve Daines has sponsored legislation to remove protections from three wilderness study areas: the Middle Fork Judith, Hoodoo and Wales areas. The poll found 68% of voters oppose removing those protections. In fact, three-quarters of voters want to keep or increase protections for all of Montana’s seven wilderness study areas.

“Montanans are clear: our public lands aren’t for sale, aren’t handouts for billionaires, and aren’t political footballs,” said Wild Montana spokesman Alex Blackmer in a statement. “More than two-thirds of Montanans oppose Sen. Daines’ plan to roll back protections for the Middle Fork Judith WSA. 80% oppose the administration’s push to roll back the Roadless Rule. That’s a crystal-clear mandate for decision-makers to follow. These places are our shared inheritance, and we expect elected officials – in Washington, in Helena, and across the state – to treat them that way.”

Graetz said the unwavering bipartisan support for public lands conservation shows it’s a deeply ingrained value for Montanans, not a fleeting political reaction.

“I want to emphasize again to the people running for office that the people do not want to get rid of public lands. They want to protect them, they want access, they want to leave them the way they are,” Graetz said.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.