The overwhelming majority of Coloradans view shortage of water supply in the West as a primary challenge and the health of the Colorado River as critical to the economy, a view widely shared by residents of other Rocky Mountain states.
A poll captured these sentiments about public lands in the West, as the region scrambles to save the river system that has fueled its growth and whose shortage now threatens its viability.
Indeed, results of the 2023 Conservation in the West Poll show 70% to 90% of respondents want to see protections for wildlife habitats and migration routes, healthier forests, safe drinking water, less light pollution at night, and, notably, action to conserve water.
Nearly everybody — 95% of respondents — wants to invest in water infrastructure to reduce leaks and waste. Similar majorities support requiring local governments to determine if enough water is available before approving new residential development projects; providing financial incentives to homeowners and businesses to replace lawns and grassy areas with water-saving landscaping; and, increasing the use of recycled water for homes and businesses.
Slimmer majorities prefer prohibiting grass lawns at new development and homes and offering financial incentives to farmers to temporarily take land out of production during severe water shortages.
The poll results affirm residents’ high degree of awareness of the region’s water woes and their desire to see concrete action in response to the crisis. Their preferences come even as Americans deal with high gasoline prices and sustained inflation, according to Lori Weigel, principal of Arvada-based research firm New Bridge Strategy, who, for 13 years, had conducted the poll for Colorado College.
“In our first year we were asking about unemployment; now we’re looking at inflation,” Weigel said. “But what we’re seeing is so much consistency in terms of the support for conservation of land, water and wildlife habitat — despite pressures like cost of living and more people moving into the state.”
Responses from a total of 3,413 residents of Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming indicate they value public lands and natural resources in their state, Weigel said.
“This year voters in the West have a lot on their minds, but they are not willing to trade one priority for another,” Colorado College Professor Katrina Miller-Stevens, director of the State of the Rockies Project, said in a statement.
This year’s 47 multiple-choice questions also included opinions about private land use, with 88% of all respondents favoring increasing use of recycled water for homes and businesses and 62% wanting to prohibit grass lawns for new developments and homes.
Poll answers by Colorado residents did not vary greatly from other states on those topics, Weigel noted.
“We saw a call for requiring local governments to assess things like whether there’s enough water before approving new residential development, which was 88% (of respondents) in Colorado,” she said.
The most pressing challenge facing the West is to come up with a plan to save millions of acre-feet of water. The seven states — and the federal government — face something of a Solomonic choice: Pick the proposal from California that puts primacy on senior water rights, with Arizona and Nevada taking the brunt of water cuts or pick the plan from the six states, and California could sue.
Either path could lead to lawsuits that drag on for years, leaving the river, and the 40 million people who rely on it, in worse shape than it is now, and many desperately want to avoid that scenario. They also prefer that all seven basin states come up a consensus proposal, rather than leave it to the federal government to choose a path for the western states.
At least 400 people from each of the eight states participated in the poll, either by phone or online, between Jan. 5 and 22. Since 2011, when the annual poll began as part of the college’s State of the Rockies Project, the nation has had three presidents, each of the surveyed states have had different governors in charge, and economic conditions have fluctuated.
In Colorado, 26% of respondents defined themselves as politically liberal, 31% as conservative and 41% as moderate.
Other results from Coloradans include the following:
• 92% favor requiring oil and gas companies, rather than federal and state governments, to pay for all of the cleanup and land restoration costs after drilling is finished.
• 88% want to require local governments to determine whether there is enough water available before approving new residential development projects.
• 87% describe the shortage of water supplies in the West as a problem.
• 87% back the nation’s presidents continuing to use their ability to protect existing public lands as national monuments.
• 83% believe the Colorado River is critical to the state’s economy.
• 82% said the rising cost of living is extremely or very serious.
• 82% support a national goal of conserving 30% of America’s land and water by 2030.
• 81% want to see financial incentives to homeowners and businesses to replace lawns and grass.
• 71% support only allowing oil and gas companies to drill in areas where there is high likelihood to actually produce oil and gas.
• 66% consider themselves to be conservationists.
• 66% agree with gradually transitioning to 100% energy produced from clean, renewable sources such as solar and wind over the next 10-15 years.
• 54% said climate change is extremely or very serious.
• 44% said crowding and more people at outdoor recreation sites like trails and parks is extremely or very serious.
• 35% identify as a hunter or angler.
“This is a unique survey that provides the opportunity for people to better understand how voters in this region, which contains such a wealth of resources from the Colorado River to national parks and public lands, think about these issues,” Weigel said.
A California company, FM3 Research, also assisted with the polling.
Colorado College has sponsored the State of the Rockies Project for 18 years to increase public understanding and perform student-faculty research and provide education about social-environmental issues in the Rocky Mountain West.
