Recreation and Public Lands—The West’s Economic Driver

As more and more Americans visit our national public lands, land managers in Western states face a tough task striking a balance between conservation and energy development. In recent years this balance has been skewed in favor of leasing public lands for oil and gas development with some states achieving a better balance than others. […]

The only question is how, not if, it happens.

As candidates look to win swing states in the West, a new poll shows that voters in Nevada support pro-public lands policies while opposing anti-public lands activist and rancher Cliven Bundy. Today the Center for Western Priorities released its 2016 Winning the West poll, conducted for the first time in Nevada, finding that voters strongly […]

When Rob Bishop was a high school history teacher, he expected his students to meet deadlines. Now that he’s a member of Congress, his constituents and the American people expect no less.

In Colorado College’s newly issued 2015 Conservation in the West poll, Western voters affirm that national public lands and their accompanying benefits—clean air and water, outdoor recreation, and easy access to outdoor spaces—are a bedrock of our Western lifestyle. In the fifth installment of the annual bipartisan poll, public opinion researchers have taken the pulse […]