On one hand, there are environmentalists who favor wilderness protection for thousands if not millions of acres of public land. They are often backpackers, fly fishers, hikers, backcountry skiers, sailboaters, mountain bikers and naturalists. They want to protect wildlife habitat and take a holistic view of ecosystem management where predators are allowed to play a role. They tend to skew urban and vote Democratic.
On the other side are consumptive users of the outdoors. They enjoy hunting, are willing to manage for species they like to hunt with little regard for predators or nonhuntable species, and are avid defenders of the Second Amendment. They enjoy using ATVs, dirt bikes and snow machines and often are not bothered by oil and gas development on public lands. They tend to be more rural and vote Republican.
These two characterizations are, of course, stereotypical. Lines between the two groups occasionally blur. Neither is entirely right or wrong. In recent elections, though, both groups have played key roles.
The environmental-preservationist faction has helped put states such as Montana, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico into play as swing states. The consumptive users have become more powerful in recent years, especially in more conservative states such as Utah and Idaho and in rural areas where federal regulations governing use of public lands cause no little amount of resentment.
I suspect one of the reasons longtime Western Sen. John McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate was to get more conservative hunters, motorized recreation enthusiasts and gun owners excited enough to mobilize and vote.
That could be important in a close election where some traditionally conservative and Republican Western states could move into the Democratic column. Having a woman on the Republican ticket who enjoys hunting, is comfortable around guns and whose husband is a snow machine racer certainly could help Republicans keep the West this year.
That is especially true since McCain, once considered a friend to the environment and a wilderness proponent, has veered right in the past eight years. An excellent story in the most recent High Country News details this evolution.
On the surface, nonhunter Democrat Barack Obama would seem to offer little to counter McCain's stance on the Second Amendment as well as hunting and fishing issues. The reality, though, is that Obama's proposals on these issues, described on his Web site, are well thought out, more so than the generalities offered on McCain's site.
It was difficult to find much on either Web site about public land-management issues except with regard to national parks. That's sad, because how these lands are managed has a great effect on the quality of our lives.
wharton@ sltrib.com
