Underscoring the importance of public land and conservation to Montanans headed into the voting booths this year, a University of Montana survey released Wednesday found that 88 percent of the state’s voters prioritize those issues when deciding on a candidate.

Released Wednesday, the second biannual Voter Survey on Public Land summarizes survey responses from 500 phone interviews conducted with registered Montana voters last month. It was commissioned by the school’s Crown of the Continent and the Greater Yellowstone Initiative.

Compared with survey results from the university’s inaugural survey, voters view public land as more important to jobs and the economy than they did in 2014: 77 percent responded that public land has an overall positive impact, up from 62 percent in 2014.

The survey sample also found increases in voters’ beliefs that public lands help protect the state’s culture and heritage (up 9 percent), create opportunities for children to explore and learn about nature (up 7 percent) and positively impact wildlife (up 6 percent).

Respondents also indicated overall opposition to proposals to transfer federal public lands to the state’s jurisdiction, with 55 percent against and 41 percent in favor. More than a third, 38 percent, said they were strongly opposed and 19 percent were strongly in favor.

Lori Weigel, who helped run the study, said during a Wednesday media call that she was surprised how many respondents felt strongly in their views on the subject, as well as the high level of opposition to the land transfer.

“That’s fairly significant, because we’ve seen that on virtually any issue, when you ask people should the state do something or should the federal government do it, they’re far more inclined to say their state would do a better job,” she said.

The highest level of support for land transfer proposals came from the Northwest portion of the state extending as far south as Ravalli County. Supporting the proposal were 45 percent of respondents while 52 percent opposed it.

Weigel, a partner with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, worked alongside Dave Metz, president of Democratic polling firm FM3, to supervise the survey.

Rick Graetz, a university geography professor who serves as co-director of the Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative, explained that the partnership was designed to create an independent bipartisan study.

“In an election year, when we have the public inundated with ads, we like to get the facts out so they can make their own decisions,” Graetz said.

With the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service this year, many of the 2016 survey’s questions focused on issues relevant to the parks.

“The support of national parks and conservation is about as popular and bipartisan an issue as you can find these days,” Graetz said.

Four out of five Montanans reported visiting public lands in the past year and three out of five had visited a national park. Of those park-goers, 95 percent testified to having a positive experience.

Respondents overwhelming felt that national parks are critical to the economies of nearby communities: 97 percent said that described the state’s national parks “well” and 78 percent responded “very well.” Asked about the importance to the state’s economy overall, 92 percent said they believed the parks are critical and 62 percent offered a stronger response.

Of those polled, 82 percent said the parks are in need of additional resources and 66 percent viewed them as overcrowded.

When interviewers asked about oil and gas drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine area, 70 percent of respondents were opposed and nearly half were strongly opposed. One quarter favored drilling, about half of whom strongly felt so.

The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 4.38 percent.

The summaries and full results from 2014 and 2016 public land surveys are available online at crown-yellowstone.umt.edu/2016-voter-survey.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.