Street Roots • June 22-28, 2018
News
Page 7
Poll: Most Oregonians want environmental preservation
Oregon Wild hopes results will be a wake-up call for lawmakers on public policy
BY EMILY GREEN
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
esults of a cross-sectional survey
conducted across Oregon in early
May reveal the majority of both
Republicans and Democrats within'the
state agree on several pertinent
environmental policy issues affecting
regional habitats.
Protections for wolves and wildlife
refuges, along with sustainable forestry,
garnered overall, wide-margined support
in the public opinion poll conducted by
Florida-based Mason-Dixon Polling and
W IK IC O M M O N S
Strategy on behalf of Oregon Wild.
Grey wolf
Oregon Wild spokesperson Arran
Robertson said he hopes this poll will
serve as “a wake up call for policy
that negatively impact waterways and fish
makers.”
habitat, Robertson said.
That’s because, like similar polls his
The majority of Republicans,
organization has commissioned in the
Democrats and Independents in Oregon
past, Robertson said issues broached do
also agreed the federal government
not appear to be highly partisan or
should not siphon large amounts of water
controversial, with results showing more
from wildlife refuges to irrigate crops
than 60 or 70 percent of voters in
during drought.
agreement on the environmental issues
This question was posed to voters as it
pollsters raised.
relates to Southern Oregon’s Klamath
“But when we propose policy solutions
Basin, which contains six wildlife refuges
- whether they be about forests or public
and has been used as a source of water
lands or wolves - those decisions become for nearby agriculture during droughts
for leaders, much
over the past two
R
m o r e c o n tr o v e r sia l,”
d ecad es.
he said. “The public
“The wildlife
is far beyond our
°The public is far bejossd oar refuge, which is
representation on
representation on strength»
supposed to be a
strengthening
ending environm ental protec refuge for wildlife,
environmental
ends up becoming
tions lo r w ild life and pnbllc
protections for
this holding tank for
lands, and there Is this dis
wildlife and public
water for industrial
connect between ns and some agriculture,”
lands, and there is
this disconnect
of ear p o litic a l leadership/"
Robertson said.
between us and
An Oregon
ARRAN ROBERTSON
some of our political
OREGON WILD SPOKESPERSON governor has
leadership.”
declared a drought
Pollsters
in the basin during
conducted landline
10 of the past 16
and mobile
years, and Gov. Kate Brown declared
telephone interviews of 625 randomly
another drought in March. The frequent
selected registered voters representing
water shortages have greatly strained
the state’s political, demographic and
farmers and cattle ranchers in the area.
rural/urban makeup.
Their reliance on the use of refuge water
The poll found 86 percent of
has in turn taxed the health of salmon
Democrats and 68 percent of
and other wildlife, numerous studies
Republicans are either strongly or
show.
somewhat supportive of requiring that
Sixty seven percent of the poll’s
wood products used in mass timber come respondents - 71 percent Democrat and
from “locally, sustainably-sourced forests
54 percent Republican - indicated they
that restrict steep slope clear cutting.”
do not support farming within the
Steep-slope clear cutting is allowed
boundaries of these wildlife refuges, as is
under the Oregon Forest Practices Act
currently practiced.
and accounts for much of the clear
Robertson said upon visiting Klamath
cutting that takes place across the state.
Basin, he’s seen where farmers have
This can lead to erosion and landslides
hung life-size eagle replicas near their
V
«■»Siili
crops, “designed to scare wildlife off the
wildlife refuge.”
While more than half of Republicans
voiced support of conservation measures,
support was stronger among Democrats
and voters who registered as
Independent or other. Support was also
stronger in the Portland metro and
Willamette Valley areas than in rural
areas, generally stronger among women
than men, and stronger among people
younger than 50 than people older than
50.
But Republicans were not in majority
support of every conservation measure.
When asked if they were supportive of
the Trump administration’s move to open
up the Cascade Siskiyou monument in
Oregon to logging and energy extraction,
56 percent of Republicans said they
support it, while 88 percent of
Democrats said they oppose the move.
Robertson said when issues become
national talking points they turn partisan.
“But then when we come back with
the next question, which is ‘Do you think
congressional representatives should be
more strident in designating public lands
as parks as wilderness and refuges?’ you
see the numbers go back up,” he said.
The poll also sought to take the pulse
of Oregonians’ perceptions of how
seriously wolves threaten Oregon’s cattle
industry.
More than half of respondents over
estimated the number of cattle killed by
wolves in 2017 (there were 11 cattle
deaths that were confirmed as wolf kills),
but 79 percent of Democrats and 54
percent of Republicans said they “do not”
believe wolves pose an economic threat
to the cattle industry. Additionally, 73
percent of Democrats and 56 percent of
Republicans said they support continued
protections for Oregon’s wolves, with 63
percent of respondents overall in
support.
Oregon Wild hopes these poll results
will, in part, influence Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
commissioners as they rewrite the state’s
Wolf Plan. Changes under consideration
include loosening regulations on wolf
hunting and lowering the bar for using
lethal control of wolf populations to
protect cattle.
The update was initially slated for
completion in 2015, but has been ongoing
and could be voted on as early as August.
Do you support or oppose requiring wood
products used in mass timber projects to come
from local, sustainably managed forests that
restrict steep slope clear-cutting?
Generally, do you support or oppose the Trump
administration opening up the Bears Ears and
the Cascade-Siskiyou monuments in Oregon to
logging and energy extraction?
Support
Do you support or oppose continued
protections for Oregon’s wolves?
emily@streetroots. org
@greenwrites
Source: Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy
Margin for error is no more than ±4 percentage points
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