Sportsmen, stamps help save habitat
“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. The excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wildlife, are ignorant of the fact that in reality, the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping large and more valuable wild creatures from extermination.”— President Theodore Roosevelt, avid hunter and creator of the National Wildlife Refuge system
In reflecting upon the quote from Roosevelt, we recall that near the turn of the century, market hunting for food at restaurants, bounty hunting and unregulated sport hunting had significantly reduced waterfowl populations. Millions of acres of wetlands had also been drained to meet the demands of an increasing population, greatly reducing waterfowl breeding and nesting habitat.
In 1929, the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission was created with a task of purchasing property for wetlands. At that time, Ding Darling, who was the director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, suggested the use of a stamp. In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (or the Duck Stamp Act), to address increasing concerns about waterfowl populations and wetlands destruction.
It was sportsmen who advocated for the stamp program over their concerns for waterfowl. Since the enactment, the program has generated over $1.1 billion and protected and conserved nearly 6 million acres of land, in U.S. Fish and Wildlife System refuges.
Besides conserving areas for waterfowl and other species, restoring and protecting the wetlands naturally serves to recharge groundwater, serve as a carbon sink, decreases soil erosion and reduces flood risk. There are 570 wildlife refuges in the United States with nearly 300 of them being acquired using federal duck stamps.
Today, anyone 16 and over hunting waterfowl must purchase a $25 duck stamp. Over 1.5 million stamps are purchased each year and about ⅔ of those stamps are purchased by hunters. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar in the program goes to buy land or purchase conservation easements.
Ducks Unlimited is an organization founded by sportsmen in 1937. Today the organization has nearly 800,000 members and has raised nearly $4 billion for wetland restoration and waterfowl and other bird species. The organization has protected and conserved nearly 13 million acres in all 50 states. Today about 90% of the Ducks Unlimited members hunt waterfowl.
One example of this work is the Preserve our Prairies Initiative. A key nesting ground for waterfowl is in the Prairie Pothole Region. The partnership between Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Preserve our Prairies Initiative has been able to preserve over 1.6 million acres of the best waterfowl breeding habitat in Montana and the Dakotas.
The next time you have a chance to visit the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, reflect for a moment on those who had the foresight to protect these awesome places. As the sandhill cranes and abundant waterfowl fly over the marshes of the refuge, remember it was the sportsmen who had the foresight nearly 100 years ago, to act to conserve both waterfowl and the magnificent wetlands they occupy. And it is through the efforts of waterfowl hunters that our national wildlife refuge system and associated waterfowl populations still are able to thrive today.
“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual presentation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants that it is for us’ — Roosevelt
Jeff Young is a lifelong New Mexican and loves all things outdoors. He lives in Sandia Park.