85% of Montanans Believe Rivers Vital to Economy

Montana author Norman MacLean would have been proud of a recent poll that shows how much Montanans love the rivers running through their state.

A majority of Montana voters think rivers are important for their quality of life and that some warrant protection, according to a poll released Tuesday by Montanans for Healthy Rivers.

Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm, and FM3, a Democratic firm, conducted the bipartisan polling effort at the end of February by interviewing 400 randomly selected Montana voters.

One-third identified themselves as Democrat, 40 percent Republican, and the rest claimed to be independent.

Of those polled, two-thirds said they'd recreated on Montana's rivers at least once in the past year. Montana's fishermen and boaters were evident in the almost one-third who said they had spent at least 10 days on the water.

An even greater percentage — 85 percent — felt that healthy rivers were very important to Montana's economy. That opinion was consistent across respondents of different political affiliations and hometowns.

Almost 95 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of Republicans said rivers were very important to the state.

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