Guest Author - Nancy Hertzel
A Duck Stamp is not for postage.
If you are planning to hunt migratory waterfowl, federal regulations require that you purchase a Duck Stamp. You stick it on your hunting license; it “completes” that license and you are then allowed to hunt ducks. The stamp is $15 and is good for one year.
The Duck Stamp story is really quite an extraordinary one. In the early 1930s, a few nature-loving people became concerned at the rapidly declining numbers of waterfowl in this country; the population of birds reached its lowest point in history in 1934 (approximately 27 million birds). What was going on? The U.S. was suffering through a terrible economic depression. Resources were slim; many hunters were shooting birds to put food on the table. Wetlands had long been considered “wasted space” and were being filled in, plowed under, and drained. Ducks and other waterfowl had depended on these wetlands for centuries for their nesting and breeding activities, and now they were disappearing at an alarming rate, and the birds along with them.
In response to this assault on our natural resources, Chief of the U.S. Biological Survey (later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) J.N. “Ding” Darling designed a program whereby waterfowl hunters would become responsible for the maintenance of the waterfowl they hunted. Each hunter would be required to purchase a Federal Duck Stamp to affix to his or her hunting license. The revenue generated from these stamps would then be used to purchase and maintain the wetland habitat necessary for preservation of the waterfowl. With Darling’s guidance, the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act was passed by Congress in 1934, and the first Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, commonly known as “Ducks Stamps,” were issued.
The results of the Duck Stamp Program could be seen immediately. Duck populations began to rebound. Over 90 cents out of every dollar generated by sales of Duck Stamps went (and still goes) directly to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System. To date, 100 million Duck Stamps have been purchased, bringing in over $500 million for the purchase of five million acres of wetland habitat. To see what impact the Duck Stamp Program has had in your state, go to http://duckstamps.fws.gov/Conservation/conservation.htm
The Duck Stamp now also allows the bearer entrance and parking at all National Wildlife Refuges. Hunters and conservationists of today, once at opposite poles of the political spectrum, are largely able to look beyond their differences and realize that in the end, they actually have the same goal of preserving and maintaining a healthy wetland and waterfowl population, and anything that can be done towards that goal is good for everyone. Many birders I know are buying Duck Stamps and joining organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, a hunting group which has done some of the most extraordinary wetland preservation work in our country’s history.
For $15, can you get a better bargain? Duck Stamps are one of the best investments you can make in the future of our country’s wetlands -- and you can go birding all year at your nearest refuge and never have to pay a parking fee.
