Photo courtesy of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.


Stamp sales support conservation of wetlands and wildlife habitat

The new federal duck stamp is on sale today at Bass Pro Shops nationwide. Whether you hunt or not, purchasing the $15 stamp is the easiest way to support wetlands and wildlife habitat conservation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will host the First Day of Sale for the 2009-2010 Federal Duck Stamp and Junior Duck Stamp today at the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World retail store in Nashville, Tennessee. Bass Pro Shops will also be sponsoring First Day of Sale events at eighteen other retail stores throughout the country that day.

The 2009-2010 Federal Duck Stamp features a long-tail duck and decoy painted by wildlife artist Joshua Spies of Watertown, S.D. A panel of five judges chose Spies art last fall from among 270 paintings at the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest in Bloomington, Minnesota.

To date, the 76-year-old program has conserved almost 6 million acres nationwide. Much of it is part of the national wildlife refuge system.

Originally created in 1934 as the federal licenses required for hunting migratory waterfowl, the sale of federal duck stamps raises approximately $25 million each year to fund waterfowl habitat acquisition for the National Wildlife Refuge System.

A few duck stamp facts:

Over 5.2 million acres of waterfowl habitat have been purchased with duck stamp dollars.

Total Sales: More than 119 Million Stamps

Total Revenue Raised: More than $700 Million for Habitat Conservation

Responsible for the more than 36,000 Waterfowl Production Areas purchased in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently signed an agreement to cooperatively promote the federal duck stamp contest. DU and the USFWS will work together to organize and promote the annual contest through 2015. DU and the USFWS signed the agreement to help raise awareness and educate the public about the importance of federal ducks stamps to wetlands and waterfowl habitat conservation.

Increasing land prices have made it more difficult for the USFWS to acquire waterfowl habitat with duck stamp proceeds. Several proposals to adjust the price of the duck stamp in order to protect more habitat have been drafted, and a bill to increase the price of the stamp will hopefully leave Congress soon.

Be sure to read DU chief biologist, Dale Humburg’s feature article in the March/April 2009 DU Magazine about the “Great Value in Duck Stamps.”

Get out and by a duck stamp today. Better yet buy two!!!


Check Out:

Waterfowl Production Areas

Blog: A piece of history - Federal Duck Stamp Competition

Federal Duck Stamp Story

Images of past stamps