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CO families must sign up to get $120 per child for food through Summer EBT; No Jurors Picked on First Day of Trump's Manhattan Criminal Trial; virtual ballot goes live to inform Hoosiers; It's National Healthcare Decisions Day.

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Former president Trump's hush money trial begins. Indigenous communities call on the U.N. to shut down a hazardous pipeline. And SCOTUS will hear oral arguments about whether prosecutors overstepped when charging January 6th insurrectionists.

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Housing advocates fear rural low-income folks who live in aging USDA housing could be forced out, small towns are eligible for grants to enhance civic participation, and North Carolina's small and Black-owned farms are helped by new wind and solar revenues.

Poll: Conservation Efforts, Environmental Priorities Remain High in Wyoming

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Monday, March 6, 2023   

Voters in Wyoming and across the West strongly support protecting water supplies, public lands and migration corridors for wildlife, according to the new "Conservation in the West" survey conducted by Colorado College.

Lori Weigel, principal of New Bridge Strategy, said there is strong support for meeting a host of conservation goals in western states.

"Water certainly tops that list," Weigel pointed out. "Virtually everyone is saying that is important to them personally, and fully 86% say that's very important."

Eight in 10 Wyoming voters see the water shortage in the West as a problem, but most were not aware 80% of Colorado River water is currently diverted to agriculture.

Six of 10 people surveyed support financial incentives to replace lawns with water-saving landscaping, and 81% said new residential developments should not be approved unless there are adequate water supplies.

Just 47% of Wyoming residents want to prioritize protecting water, air, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities over maximizing the amount of land available for drilling and mining. But 85% say extraction companies should have to pay for cleanup and restoration.

Dave Metz, president of the public policy research firm FM3, said people increasingly see conservation is not at odds with building a strong economy, even during times of rising energy prices.

"Gas prices may go up, but they still believe that we should be moving toward more use of clean and renewable energy, as opposed to drilling for more fossil fuels," Metz observed. "Because they know that over the long run, that's where they think that we have to go."

Three quarters of people surveyed support the goal of preserving at least 30% of the nation's lands and waters by 2030. More than nine in 10 support constructing wildlife crossings across highways. Weigel added poll results have varied over the project's 13-year history, but across the board, people remain adamant about preserving natural landscapes integral to their identity.

"What's staying the same is really what they value about the West and about their state," Weigel emphasized. "It is overwhelmingly about the land, the view, the wildlife that walk across their property."


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