Federal Duck Stamp Program

In the years since its enactment, the Federal Duck Stamp Program has become one of the most popular and successful conservation programs ever initiated. Some 635,000 hunters paid $1.00 each for the first stamps, which went on sale August 22, 1934. Since then, the price has gradually risen to the current $15.00 and the number of stamps bought climbed to a peak of 2.4 million in 1970-71.

Today, some 1.5 million stamps are sold each year. Not only waterfowl hunters buy Duck Stamps; they have become popular with stamp collectors as well. A collector who had bought each stamp the year it was issued would have paid a total of $304 by 1996. That investment would now be worth well over $5,000.

Stamps issued before 1941 are exceedingly rare since the law originally specified that unsold stamps were to be destroyed the following year. Although the majority of excess stamps are still destroyed annually, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Federal Duck Stamp Program, as well as the U.S. Postal Service, continue to sell each year's stamp for 3 years.

More importantly, as of 1995, Federal Duck Stamps have generated $501 million that has been used to preserve 4,389,792.86 acres of waterfowl habitat in the United States. Many of the more than 510 national wildlife refuges have been paid for all or in part by Duck Stamp money.

But waterfowl are not the only wildlife to benefit from Federal Duck Stamps. Numerous other birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians have similarly prospered because of habitat protection made possible by the program. Further, an estimated one third of the nation's endangered and threatened species find food or shelter in refuges preserved by Duck Stamp funds.

Not only wildlife, but people, too, have benefitted from the Federal Duck Stamp Program. Hunters are ensured birds for their bag, and other outdoor enthusiasts gain places to hike, bird watch or merely visit. Moreover, the protected wetlands help dissipate storms, purify water supplies, store flood water, nourish fish hatchlings important for sport and commercial fishermen.

You can read more about the Duck Stamp program and the contest on this page.