By Brandon Loomis | The Republic | azcentral.com
Western voters love their public lands and do not want to sell them or underfund their management, an annual bipartisan poll of regional attitudes found.
In Arizona, according to Colorado College’s “State of the Rockies” poll taken last month, 74 percent of respondents disapprove of selling national forest or Bureau of Land Management acreage, and 63 percent would be more likely to vote for a candidate who votes to increase funds to agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.
Eighty-four percent agreed that the closure of national parks and public lands during last fall’s federal government shutdown “hurt small businesses and the economy of communities” in Arizona. Seventy-one percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who favors reducing funding for land agencies.
