Some Thoughts on the Federal Duck Stamp Program

On misty fall mornings in marshes and lakes across the country, the voices of geese and ducks can be heard calling and echoing as they pass above in ragged vees or from flocks gathered on still, mirrored water.   It’s a Norman Rockwell picture of autumn in America. 

There was a time when these ponds and ducks and geese were in real danger of disappearing.  Their numbers had become dangerously low and the potholes were being filled in to provide more arable land.   This was during the Great Depression and people were killing wildfowl and other animals simply to feed their families.  It was a hardscrabble time. 

Wildfowl conservation seemed like a frivolous thing to talk about in those dark days, but out of those days came the  Federal Duck Stamp Program.   The Duck Stamp Program was nicknamed the “little program that could”, and since its inception in 1934, has generated more than $750 million dollars.  Ninety-eight cents of each of those dollars has been used to help purchase or lease 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the U. S., much of which is now protected within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

So, what is a duck stamp and where do they come from?  The Program was started by President Roosevelt, and to this day, all hunters must buy a duck stamp every year in order to hunt wildfowl.  In order to make it interesting, the Federal Government provides a juried art event to choose the stamp every year, and it’s a very prestigious win for wildlife artists.  This year there were over 200 entries.  The artists are given a limited choice of wildfowl types to paint.  This year’s winner shows a male and female canvasback.   There is also a Junior Duck Stamp Contest and you see some of the incredible entries now at the Ocean Park Library.

Ducks Unlimited, a hunters’ organization, has been instrumental in supporting the Program. But, you say, hunters kill ducks, right?   Yes, but.   Here is a comparison of ways birds are lost.   

 Annual waterfowl hunts account for 15 million bird kills a year.

 Window crashes, cat kills, high tension wires, cars and communication towers account for over five times that many kills a year!  These stats were compiled by David Allen Sibley in 2003.  Sibley is a birder and conservationist.

Plus, when a piece of land is set aside by the Duck Stamp Program, not only the wildfowl are protected.  Frogs, newts, shorebirds, coyotes, bats, whatever other critters use that area are also protected from habitat loss.  

Hunter numbers across the U. S. are dwindling, and the environmental community has been slow to recognize the value of the Duck Stamp Program.   Birders don’t have to buy a stamp to go out in the field, and some argue that birding is ‘non-extractive’.   We don’t take home a brace of birds, but there is our vehicle impact, trail maintenance and so on.  

I say, buy a stamp if you care about the birds.  If you shoot them or watch them, we’re all in this together.  If we care about habitat and wildlife, the stamp is a good thing.  And a current stamp will get you free admission to any wildlife refuge open to the public.  (When they re-open, that is.)

You can purchase this small piece of art at your local post office, local refuge or online.  There is an excellent small book  about the Duck Stamp Program called  “The Wild Duck Chase”  by Martin J. Smith.  Our library system has it.

So the next time to look up to admire a noisy flock of geese or ducks, know that you can help to support them.