CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Political party affiliation and education levels are key to New Hampshire residents’ opinions on climate change, according to poll results released Tuesday.

Overall, 76 percent of state residents say they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about climate change, according to a poll commissioned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in September.

But among respondents who said they are Republicans, 22 percent said they were “very concerned,” while 69 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of independents had the same level of concern.

The higher the education level, the more likely respondents were to be concerned about climate change. Among those with high school education or less, 39 percent are “very concerned,” while 68 percent of those who have completed at least some graduate work are “very concerned.”

The Forest Society is a nonpartisan group that focuses on forestry practices and land conservation. The group would fall into the category of “very concerned” about climate change, spokesman Jack Savage said.

“We are very concerned and we are trying to sort out what the appropriate response is for an organization like ours,” Savage said.

“Our early conclusion is that the kind of work we do is good for the environment and good for people, regardless of how you feel about climate change.”

While the society’s members come from all political groups, the difference in opinion on climate change between Democrats and Republicans was striking to Savage.

, and he said the group is assessing how to best use that information to get its message out.

“It tells me that there is, somewhere in there, a certain distrust of information and we have long tried to be a fair broker of good information,” he said.

“At this point, now that we have that picture, we would say let’s understand even further why that is and see if we can narrow down (the information about climate change) and get rid of the polemics so we can focus on putting out the best information available.”

The climate change questions were included as part of the quarterly Granite State Poll of 508 New Hampshire adults last month by the UNH Survey Center. The margin of sampling error for the survey is 4.4 percent.

AP-ES-10-30-07 1810EDT