From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes: A big event is coming to northwest Ohio at the end of September, and local birders are excited about it.
That in
itself is not unusual. Northwest Ohio is no stranger to birding events. One of
the largest and most important bird festivals on the continent, The Biggest Week
In American Birding, makes a huge impact here every May. Another notable
festival, the Midwest Birding Symposium, is held here in fall every other year.
But the event in late September isn’t a birding festival. It’s the contest to
choose the artwork for next year’s Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation
Stamp—better known as the Duck Stamp.
The
Duck Stamp program dates to 1934, a time when waterfowl populations in North
America were in serious trouble because of habitat loss. The federal wildlife
agencies needed a way to raise money to purchase or restore wetland habitats.
By producing the stamp and requiring hunters to buy it, they were able to
immediately start raising funds to protect habitat for nesting, wintering, and
migratory stopovers for waterfowl. The program has been a spectacular success,
having raised many millions of dollars and having led to the protection of over
5.3 million acres of quality habitat.
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The first Duck Stamp, from 1934 |
At
first, artists supplied each year’s stamp design by invitation. Starting in
1949, the stamp design has been chosen by a contest each year. The winning
artist is not paid for the artwork, but the prestige of winning can provide a
huge boost to any wildlife artist’s career, so hundreds enter every year. The
contest is administered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and judged by
five independent experts appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. Some
talented artists have won the contest more than once, but being a judge is a
coveted, once-in-a-lifetime honor.
Who
buys the stamp? Waterfowl hunters are required to purchase one—and I think most would do so willingly, because they believe in supporting the resource. Many stamp
collectors also buy these little works of art every year, adding them to their
collections. And many birders also buy the stamp. I’ve been buying it for many
years now. But why?
Why do
birders buy the stamp? Because we like ducks too, and we recognize that the stamp
supports many kinds of wildlife. Wetlands for ducks are also ideal habitats for
rails, gallinules, bitterns, grebes, terns, various marsh-loving wrens and
sparrows, and many other birds.
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White Ibises (juvenile and adult): they're not ducks, but they have benefited greatly from the habitat protection made possible by Duck Stamp sales. |
But proceeds
from stamp sales don’t just buy duck habitat. This money goes into the
Migratory Bird Conservation Fund (MBCF), and then it is used to add to the
National Wildlife Refuge System, through either purchase or lease of land. Consider
these popular birding refuges, and the percentage of their total area paid for
with MBCF money:
Bombay Hook NWR, Delaware 95%
Forsythe NWR (Brigantine), New Jersey 84%
Bosque del Apache NWR, New Mexico 99%
Pea Island NWR, North Carolina 99%
Ottawa NWR, Ohio 86%
Anahuac NWR, Texas 87%
Santa Ana NWR, Texas 94%
Birders who travel will know that all these refuges support
many kinds of birds besides ducks. Santa Ana NWR, for example, does have a
couple of small lakes that host a few hundred ducks at some seasons, but most
of the refuge is subtropical woodland, home to Green Jays, Hook-billed Kites,
and other specialty birds of the border region. Ottawa NWR, near my home in
Ohio, does host large numbers of waterfowl, but it’s also prime habitat for
Bald Eagles, and its woodlands swarm with warblers and other migratory
songbirds in spring. Birders and wildlife-watchers get far more use out of these
refuges than hunters do.
As a
serious birder, knowing that Duck Stamp sales have provided habitats like
these, I have plenty of reason to buy the stamp every year. But I’ve had some
additional involvement with the stamp. In October 2004, I flew to Washington to
serve as one of the judges for the contest to choose the 2005-2006 Federal Duck
Stamp design.
My
fellow judges were John Tomke, president of Ducks Unlimited; Dr. Tom Hutchens,
immediate past chairman of Delta Waterfowl Foundation; Rich Smoker, a renowned
carver of waterfowl; and Michael Jaffe, a leading philatelist and expert on
conservation stamps. Of course, I’m not a hunter or a carver or a stamp expert.
I was there to represent the birders.
That
could have been a recipe for tension. In some parts of North America there is a
deep divide, or at least a sense of wariness, between birders and hunters. But my relations with hunters always have
been cordial, because I’ve always recognized how much they contribute to
conservation. As a kid, reading Roger Tory Peterson’s Birds Over America, I was
impressed at how the great birdman gave credit to sportsmen’s groups for
protecting duck habitat. He wrote about the Duck Stamp, about the National
Wildlife Refuges, about private organizations like Ducks Unlimited. He wrote that
there was a huge difference between the market gunners of former times, who
wiped out wildlife for sheer profit, and modern sportsmen, who worked to
maintain healthy populations of wildlife so that hunting could continue.
So even
birders who don’t hunt recognize the conservation work done by hunters’ groups.
In speaking to bird clubs and bird festivals, I have made this point many times
over the last 25 years: “I’m concerned about bird conservation. I worry about
what will happen to populations of shorebirds. I worry about what will happen
to populations of hawks, woodpeckers, warblers. But I never spend a minute
worrying about ducks, because the duck hunters are taking care of them. If duck
hunting ever fades away, we will have to scramble like crazy to find a way to
protect that whole group of birds and their habitats."
Most
birders understand that, so I rarely get any flack for saying it. And having
said this to birding groups hundreds of times, it was no sweat to say it to the
hunters on the judging panel. We got along fine for our two days of discussions
and deliberations, we chose a beautiful painting by Mark Anderson for the
2005-2006 stamp, and I was never made to feel that I, as a birder, was out of
place.
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Mark Anderson's artwork graced the 2005-2006 Duck Stamp, and I was proud to have played a part in selecting this striking and beautiful design for the stamp. |
So if
birders are being included as judges in the contest, does that mean that the
birding community at large is recognized for its support of the Duck Stamp
program? Well—sort of. There are steps
in that direction. Federal wildlife agencies are paying more attention to
birders than they used to. For the last few years I’ve been on an advisory
panel on “Birding on the National Wildlife Refuges,” and some of our
recommendations have gained some traction. But a high percentage of employees
at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service still come from a hunting and fishing
background. Thinking about birders and nongame birds may be a stretch for some
of them.
Whatever
the reason, birders sometimes feel oddly left out by the policies of some
National Wildlife Refuges. And some birders use that as an excuse for not
buying the Duck Stamp. “Why should I buy it,” they say, “when the hunters will
get all the credit for supporting the program?” I have argued that the Duck
Stamp is a powerful force for bird conservation, and that we shouldn’t care who
gets the credit. But at some level, I can see their point. If birders aren’t
recognized for supporting the stamp and the refuges, won’t it be harder for us
to influence the refuges to help the nongame birds?
For the
birders who raise that objection, here’s a suggestion: support the program and
make your voice heard by buying the Duck Stamp from a birding organization.
There are more and more opportunities to do this. The Georgia Ornithological
Society and Wisconsin Society for Ornithology are among several state bird
clubs that sell the stamp. Here in northwest Ohio, the Black Swamp Bird
Observatory (BSBO) started selling the Duck Stamp several years ago. It’s
important to note that selling the stamp is not like selling regular
merchandise: there is no profit. If BSBO sells a book for 15 dollars, they
probably will make 6 or 7 dollars on it. When BSBO sells a Duck Stamp for 15
dollars, the profit is zero. There is no markup. The money all goes straight
back to the program.
So why
does the Black Swamp Bird Observatory bother to sell the stamp? Because they are
committed to conservation. They are committed to supporting habitat for all
birds.
Northwest
Ohio just might be the best place to build better relations between the
communities of birders and hunters. After all, the birders who live here realize
that some of our very best birding sites, places like Magee Marsh Wildlife Area
and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, were saved from development by private
duck-hunting clubs. The duck clubs kept the habitat in good shape until the
time that the land could be sold or donated to the government wildlife
agencies. Even today, some of the most productive bird habitat is managed by
private duck clubs. So all the birders here know that we owe a debt of
gratitude to the hunters.
And the
birders here already support the Duck Stamp. Look at the Black Swamp Bird
Observatory, which not only sells the stamp but actively promotes it. On their
website, in their nature shop, at their huge Biggest Week In American Birding
festival, BSBO urges the birders to buy the stamp and protect habitat.
There
are other connections, too. At the end of the month, when the judging for next
year’s Duck Stamp takes place in northwest Ohio, the contest will be held at
the Lodge at Maumee Bay State Park. This is the same lodge that serves as
headquarters for The Biggest Week In American Birding each spring. We birders
are very familiar with this place, and many of us will come to the lodge to
witness the Duck Stamp contest. We’ll look at the art, pick our own favorites,
argue about relative merits of the different pieces, and await the decision of
the judges. And when the stamp is issued next June, we’ll be among the first in
line to buy it.
Why? Enlightened
self-interest. We know that our birding in the future depends on saving habitat
today. We know that the Duck Stamp is a highly effective program for saving
habitat. So we’re really just helping ourselves.
The
duck hunters recognize this principle. Ducks Unlimited, one of the most
effective conservation groups in the world, recently started a campaign to urge
their members to “Double Up For Ducks,” to buy two Duck Stamps per year instead
of one. The hunters don’t have to buy a second stamp—but many of them do.
By the
same token, the people at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory don’t have to sell
the Duck Stamp—but they do. And the birders don’t have to buy the stamp—but we
do.
Do I
wish that birders got more recognition for supporting the program? Well, sure. It’s
nice to get credit. And we'll keep working on that. But in the meantime, we need to save habitat, and this is one of the easiest, most direct ways to do it. If you like birds and you haven't yet bought your Duck Stamp for this year, why not click this link and buy the stamp right now?
Helpful links for more information: