(Editor’s note: This story was updated with comments from the luncheon to release the poll and analyze its contents.)

Colorado College’s Conservation in the West Poll released Thursday shows a big gain in the number of Coloradans and Westerners, in general, who consider themselves conservationists. A little over one-third think President Trump is doing a good job on outdoors issues.

Comparing polls released in 2016 to the new one, the affiliation with the outdoors-loving label jumped from 65 percent to 75 percent in Colorado and 63 percent to 76 percent in eight Mountain West states.

People were asked this year about President Trump’s efforts to reduce two national monuments in Utah and other changes by the administration to favor more oil and gas production and higher costs to enter Rocky Mountain National Park and other popular destinations.

“Public lands drive our economy and define our way of life,” Walt Hecox, professor emeritus of economics at Colorado College and founder of the State of the Rockies Project, said in a statement. “A leadership agenda that does not recognize that reality is going to be met with strong disapproval in Colorado.”

You can read the full poll and state-by-state findings by clicking here.

A packed hotel ballroom crowd listened to analysis of the report at lunch Thursday, next door to the Outdoor Retailer trade show that moved from Salt Lake City to Denver this year over Utah’s more right-leaning view of public lands.

Travis Campbell, president of Smartwool, based in Steamboat Springs, said businesses in the outdoor industry have gotten more politically active because their customers, like those reflected in the poll, expect it.

“At the end of the day it matters because our consumers are voting with their dollars now, and they want to know we’re helping protect the places where they recreate,” said Campbell , who also is chairman of the board for the Outdoor Industry Association.

The annual poll by the State of the Rockies Project is in its eighth year.

“We wanted to celebrate what was happening in the Rockies, but in all the years I was working on it, I never knew what people really thought,” Hecox told the crowd about the origin of the poll. “I would read what politicians told us they thought they thought, and I read what journalists thought, what I call journalistic statistics, which is just a fact here and there.”

The panel of speakers included Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities.

“CWP has been following the Trump administration’s actions on public lands and energy policy, and it’s clear when it comes to public lands in the West President Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are on the wrong side of history and public opinion,” she told the crowd.

Colorado voters gave the Trump administration’s an approval rating of just 36 percent for their work on land, water and wildlife issues. Fifty-five percent disapproved.

Sixty-eight percent of those polled in Colorado said they prefer protecting water, air and wildlife, as well as protecting national public lands, to 1 percent who preferred Trump to prioritize domestic energy production from drilling and mining on public lands.

The poll is bipartisan — conducted by Republican pollster Lori Weigel of Public Opinion Strategies and Democratic pollster Dave Metz of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.

Coloradans — 96 percent, the poll suggests — see outdoor recreation as a driver of the state’s future economy, and 86 percent view public lands as a way to attract innovative employers.

Other findings from Colorado included:

Pollsters talked to a representative sample of 400 registered voters in Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in late December and early January. The poll has a margin of error of 2.85 percent as a whole and 4.9 percent in individual states.

“This poll shows what we’ve all known to be true: Coloradans love our public lands, and we want to protect them from drilling and mining that threatens our way of life,” said Scott Braden, wilderness and public lands advocate for Conservation Colorado, the state’s largest environmental organization. “Public lands are for all of us — from seasoned mountaineers to the kids playing in city parks.

“It’s no surprise that the Trump Administration’s attacks on public lands are deeply unpopular. Westerners know that our wild places are national treasures that should be protected for future generations. The presence of the Outdoor Retailer Show just affirms the positive impact of Colorado’s booming outdoor recreation industry. Coloradans know that public lands support our economy, help us create jobs and attract companies, and contribute to the growth of rural areas.”