Duck Stamp Increase Proposed

The Bush Administration has submitted a $2.2 billion US Fish & Wildlife Service budget request for fiscal year 2009 that includes a proposal to increase the cost of a federal duck stamp for the first time since 1991. The proposed $10 increase—if approved—would raise the cost of a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp 67 percent, from $15 to $25.

In an early February announcement on the budget plan the Service said “ . . . the added funding will allow for acquisition of an estimated 6,800 additional acres of migratory bird habitat and secure easements for 10,000 additional acres of wetlands per year across the nation.”

Response to the plan indicates support from sportsmen and conservation groups, including Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl. The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul reported recently that the groups not only support this increase but another for 2015, as well as a program of accelerated borrowing against future duck stamp revenues to buy land and easements for habitat at today’s prices. The Great Falls Tribune in Montana cited support from Delta Waterfowl and the Audubon Society, based on the need to protect land lost from the Conservation Reserve Program and the higher value of farm land.

—Ed Carroll

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