A change is in the works for the bird/duck hunting and conservation stamp. Adding a non-game bird to design of the stamp is under consideration.
The stamp is officially known as the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp. Migratory, bird, and conservation are the important words here.
To date, all bird/duck stamps have shown only ducks. The stamp was and is intended to raise money from waterfowl hunters to support creation and maintenance of public hunting land.
Hunters must buy the stamp annually. There is, however, increasing importance for support of the stamp by non-hunters. That's you and me. The stamp could as soon as next year display a non-waterfowl bird species. The $25 cost of the stamp does, after all, support more migratory-but-not-hunted species than it does waterfowl.
The change will coincide with the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty. It protects all migrating species, most of which are the birds we birders watch.
Since 1934, the stamp's first year, $800 million has been raised for preservation of over 6.5 million acres of wetland and grassland habitat. How much of that money has come from you? We all need to support this. All of us should be pitching in. Particularly now, since a binocular bird is likely to be on the next stamp.
