There is a strong appetite for new state funding to support wildlife protection, improve public access, and conserve more working lands in Montana according to new findings by the Montana Outdoor Heritage Project (MOHP).

The study found that Montanans across the state offered a wide variety of potential solutions to help protect Montana’s wildlife, working lands and outdoor recreation. One such solution was to create more partnerships: collaboration, working together across political and geographic divides, and to engage more citizens through volunteerism, private fundraising and public-private partnerships.

The study also discovered a common interest in empowering local communities to be more in control of funding. They want to be able to use and direct new funding locally and ensure it will be used to assist their own communities.
According to the report, “nine out of 10 survey respondents were in favor of increasing dedicated funding in Montana.”

It also noted respondents’ conviction that trails and greenways impact our economy through tourism, events, urban redevelopment, community improvement, property values, health care costs, jobs and investment, and general consumer spending.

The findings are based on a significant statewide public outreach effort that solicited input from one percent of the state’s population, including 50 community conversations and 11,000 individual survey responses collected from Montana residents between May and September.

You can see the report here