Despite a tax-sensitive political climate and burgeoning fear of global recession, the fight to support and increase waterfowl conservation through revenue from the federal duck stamp is very much alive, reports the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI). In response to persistent legislative neglect and escalating land prices, Ducks Unlimited Inc. (DU) and the newly instated non-profit "Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp" are both on the verge of launching campaigns designed to increase the buying power and awareness of the federal duck stamp program.

"A dollar today simply does not buy what a dollar did in the past," observed Scott Sutherland, Director of Governmental Affairs for DU. Sutherland and other conservation leaders have been frustrated by the precipitous devaluing of the stamp and the reduced impact its revenue is having on the preservation of migratory bird habitat.

In the 77 years since the federal duck stamp was devised by venerated conservationist and cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling and signed into law as the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (Act) by President Franklin Roosevelt, more than 5.3 million acres of vital wetland habitat across the United States have been purchased through stamp sales. Incorporated into the National Wildlife Refuge System, these protected acres are the greatest offset to the 80,000 acres of wetlands lost to development and agriculture every year. A federal duck stamp, not valid for postage, is required of every hunter in the U.S. 16 years of age and older who hunts migratory waterfowl.

As habitat loss has continued in the United States, the buying power of the duck stamp has decreased to only 36 percent of what it was 20 years ago. According to statistics published by DU, the average cost of waterfowl habitat purchased with duck stamp dollars in 1991?when the stamp cost was last increased, to $15?was $306 per acre. By 2010, land values had more than tripled to nearly $1,100 per acre.

To address the rising cost of conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has made a continual effort to update the duck stamp program to reflect current market prices and conservation needs. In the recent 2012 budget justification for the Migratory Bird Conservation Account, as with nearly every federal budget since the waning years of the Bush administration, the FWS proposed an amendment to the Act (now the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act) that would "increase the sales price for duck stamps" to $25, bringing it in line with inflation adjustments determined by the consumer price index.

Experts warn, however, that this year's budget request will likely suffer the same fate as those in years past. "There is no leg-bending on Capitol Hill to do it now," said Sutherland. Historically, territorial politics have systematically shot down all attempts to update the stamp's fiscal clout, by labeling the increase as a new tax or bogging down proposed legislation with special interest exemptions. "It's a tough argument to make that an increase to the duck stamp is not a tax when it results in mandatory payments from the public (i.e., hunters) to the federal government," noted Vaughn Collins, Director of Governmental Affairs for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and past SChief of the FWS Duck Stamp Office.

"The duck stamp is not a tax at all," emphasized Steve Williams, WMI President. "It is a contribution to waterfowl conservation. If waterfowl hunters generally favor the increase in support of waterfowl habitat, increased populations and hunting opportunity, why should politicians and others object."

Although Collins, Williams and other conservation leaders see little hope for a stamp price increase gaining traction in the rapidly heating climate of a presidential campaign year, the proposal has been steadily gaining advocates.

Motivated by the federal government's propensity to overlook the duck stamp program's benefits and the personal belief that the "stamp should be a vehicle to build bridges for bird and wildlife conservation, across varied interest lines," Collins and an independent, nonpartisan band of duck stamp price-increase supporters established a "nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion, preservation, sales and better understanding of the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp." Soon to be announced formally, the Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp (Friends) will strive to preserve the duck stamp program's traditions, promote appropriate price increases and "reach out to an expanded market of potential buyers who have not yet seen a ?need' to buy a stamp."

"Raw data seems to indicate that well over 90 percent of stamp sales are required sales? [purchases by hunters]," said Collins. "The other 10 percent likely are to stamp collectors and National Wildlife Refuge System users." Collins and the Friends group note that lands purchased with duck stamp revenue not only provide critical bird breeding, resting and wintering areas necessary to support huntable populations of waterfowl, they also support recreational opportunities for birders, wildlife photographers, environmental educators and others.

According to logbooks at national wildlife refuges, more than 90 percent of Duck Stamps sold at some refuges were to individuals classifying themselves as nonhunters. Collins believes that non-traditional stamp buyers have a big part to play in shoring up the future of the stamp and its enhanced conservation potential. "There is very little information on the metrics of who duck stamp buyers are, but we [the Friends] think there are missed opportunities to promote stamp sales to non-hunters."

Like the Friends, DU has initiated its own endeavor to generate support for the duck stamp program and the increased stamp sales. "Although it's still in discussion, we're planning to launch an initiative we call ?Double up for the Ducks' in the coming months," said Sutherland. Targeting traditional stamp purchasers, the campaign will encourage duck hunters to buy an additional duck stamp to the one they are required by federal law to purchase before hunting waterfowl.

Sutherland believes that a major driver behind the recent failed attempts to increase stamp prices has been the misconception that hunters can't afford or aren't willing to pay more during tough fiscal times. "Based on very informal surveys of our members," said Sutherland, "we have received virtually no pushback from hunters on proposed fee increases." Past economic analysis by the FWS lends support to Sutherland's claim, by citing that "the cost of purchasing a duck stamp represents only about 2 percent of the total cost of waterfowl hunting for each hunter per year," and "those who purchase duck stamps can be confident that their duck stamp dollars are protecting migratory bird habitat."

Struggling economies are not new to the federal duck stamp program. When Darling and the U.S. Biological Survey fostered the program that made waterfowl hunters the nearly sole stewards of the birds they hunted in the 1930s, the United States was in the midst of the worst economic depression in the nation's history. Still, hunters found a way to dig deep to curb the rapid loss of wetlands at a time when financial resources were slim and need was both real and urgent. This phenomenon has been attributed, at least in part, to the fact that there few conservation investments can boast the efficiency of the duck stamp program. According to official documents from the Department of the Interior, 98 percent of every dollar collected from the sales of duck stamps are spent directly on habitat acquisition through the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund.

Given the competence of funds generated by the stamp, both DU and the Friends strongly believe that the Duck Stamp program holds a solid position in the future model of North American wildlife conservation. It is a program that demonstrates anew that it is sportsmen/women and the other concerned citizens who supply the backbone in efforts to ensure conservation of natural resources. (mcd)