The price of the Migratory Birding Hunting and Conservation Stamp has gone up for the first time in 24 years. And that's good news for bird lovers.
The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp is a revenue stamp that waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and older must purchase and carry with them each year to hunt.
It is also a conservation stamp because proceeds from stamp sales help purchase and protect wetland habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. The $10 increase is expected to provide between $14 million and $16 million more per year for perpetual easements.
The new stamp, valid from July 1 to June 30, shows a pair of Ruddy Ducks painted by Jennifer Miller. It also gains you free admission to national wildlife refuges.
Since 1991, the stamps had lost an estimated 40% of their value based on the Consumer Price Index, while the cost to conserve habitats that host waterfowl and other species has increased dramatically. As a result, the land-buying power of the federal duck stamp had never been lower in its 79- year history.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that the price of land in targeted wetland and grassland areas has tripled, from an average of $306 to $1,091 per acre.
Duck Stamp supporters acknowledge that it will also be more difficult to pitch a stamp that costs an additional $10 -- particularly if potential non-waterfowlers think that the stamp is, somehow, "just for ducks and just for waterfowl hunters."
At $25, the need to convince those who don't have to buy a stamp -- collectors, general conservationists, birders, wildlife photographers, non-waterfowl hunters -- becomes greater.
What is required, they argue, is a fullblown marketing campaign, to increase the appreciation of the need to save wetland and grassland habitats, to explain the role of easements at this time, and to appeal to conservation-oriented Americans not currently required to buy the stamps.
People buying the stamps -- hunters and non-hunters alike -- should feel pride when they spend $25 for the stamp, pride in contributing to habitat conservation.
The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology has long supported purchase of duck stamps. That is why you see a full-page order form The Badger Birder most months – including this one -- touting their purchase.
As WSO's order form outlines, conservationists buy a Duck Stamp because they know that, dollar for dollar, it's one of the best investments you can make in the future of America's wetlands. Some 98% of the proceeds go to secure wetland and grassland habitat within the system.
Since 1934, $800 million has helped acquire and protect more than 6 million acres of wetlands within the National Wildlife Refuge System, which in this state includes the Upper Mississippi, Horicon and Necedah, along with numerous Waterfowl Production Areas, which preserve small natural wetlands and their associated uplands.
See the Conservation area of the WSO website – http://wsobirds.org/what-we-do/