The hosts of The Standard Sportsman podcast recently started a campaign to encourage waterfowl hunters to increase their purchase of federal duck stamps this year.
Dubbed the Buy Two Duck Stamps Campaign, Brent Birch (also contributing editor of Greenhead magazine) and Cason Short, are asking fellow hunters to double up on their stamps in order to increase funding for hunting habitats. They’ve created buytwoduckstamps.com and are promoting “Buy Two” on social media and among the hunting community.
“Ninety-eight cents of every dollar generated by duck stamp sales goes towards obtaining and protecting wetland habitat in the United States,” the website reads.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, waterfowl hunters beginning at 16 years old must possess a current signed federal migratory-bird hunting stamp each year to hunt legally — in addition to their state licenses and permits. The duck stamps — first issued in 1934 — cost $25 apiece through the Department of the Interior.
“Hunters have played an integral part in conserving America’s wildlife and habitat — best illustrated by the success of the Federal Duck Stamp Program,” FWS officials say. “For 90 years, by buying duck stamps, waterfowl hunters and others have supported the conservation of more than 6 million acres of wetland habitat.”
Birch and Short say the hunting community’s response to the recent threat to reduce drain tile setbacks in the Prairie Pothole Region pushed them into action just ahead of waterfowl hunting season. That potential move by the FWS could have left ducks with fewer wetlands to pair, nest and raise broods, they say.
“The practice or promotion of buying two stamps isn’t new,” Birch adds. “But the timing has arguably never been more important. We want to help make buying two or more duck stamps a standard practice among American duck and goose hunters this season — and beyond.”
For the ongoing campaign, they’ve created the tagline: “Buy the first because you have to. Buy the second because you want to.”
