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		Nature Conservancy Magazine: Autumn 2006 Nature Conservancy Magazine Sale of the Century Up Close Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom Hunter, Angler, Conservationist The Stamp of Conservation Nature Stories Podcast Nature Landmarks Nature Books Nature Travel Nature Preserves Subscribe Previous Issues

Hunter, Angler, Conservationist

Page 5

© USFWS  Federal Duck Stamps were created in 1934 and have generated more than $670 million to protect more than 5 million acres of wetlands habitat. The stamp was later renamed the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp to reflect its full purpose.   Duck stamps can be bought at post offices and through the U.S. Postal Service’s online store. See more duck stamps at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.

Sidebar:  The Stamp of Conservation
Dave Mehlman has been buying duck stamps for 20 years. He keeps the collection in a box and keeps the current year’s stamp handy for when he goes to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, 90 minutes south of his home near Albuquerque, New Mexico. His stamp gains him free admission.

But Mehlman, who directs the Conservancy’s migratory-bird program, isn’t a duck hunter. When he goes to the refuge, he’s carrying binoculars, not a shotgun.

So why the duck stamp? “Because the funds go directly to acquiring new National Wildlife Refuges or adding to existing ones, and some of those are the top birding places in the country,” he says. (Only some charge admission.) In fact, money from the duck-stamp program helped pay for the creation of Bosque del Apache, an internationally famous birding destination.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the National Wildlife Refuge system, many of the country’s most popular birding spots are refuges, such as Blackwater in Maryland and Cat Island in Louisiana, funded in part by federal duck-stamp dollars. Fish and Wildlife estimates that refuges annually receive more than 40 million visitors, almost 80 percent of them birders. “If you’re a birder, you need birds, and you need access, and this program provides both,” says Paul Schmidt, an assistant director for migratory birds at Fish and Wildlife.

Duck stamps, now officially known as Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, were created in 1934 in an effort to boost waterfowl populations, which had been decimated by overharvesting and habitat destruction. The stamps have paid off, with growth in the refuge system and in waterfowl populations. But over the years, duck-stamp sales have slumped, and the price of bird habitat has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the cost of duck stamps has remained steady at $15. Says Schmidt: “Our buying power has gone down. We’re buying less and less and preserving less and less.”

The Conservancy and others, including Ducks Unlimited and Pheas-ants Forever, are supporting legislation to turn that situation around. The legislation essentially replicates an earlier law under which Congress gave Fish and Wildlife a $200 million loan to protect wetlands, with the understanding that the loan would be repaid with future sales of duck stamps. (Congress ultimately forgave the loan.) Under the proposed law, Congress would advance $400 million over 10 years—to be repaid by duck-stamp revenue.

Part of the strategy is to get nonhunters to buy the stamps. Says Scott Sutherland of Ducks Unlimited, “Anyone who cares about wild places and spaces should care about this program.”

—Courtney Leatherman 

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