New West Network

Duck Stamp

By Mike Smith, New West Unfiltered 1-20-07

DUCK STAMP
Michael S. Smith

My first duck stamp arrived in the mail today, a present for my 58th birthday.

That is a bit late in life to start duck hunting, but who said I was planning to hunt? I’ve used a firearm exactly once – in 1976, as a Naval officer on liberty in Subic Bay. The Marine combat cargo officer on board insisted I do some skeet shooting in addition attending the World War II tutorials he gave me. Sadly for him, but happily for the animal kingdom, I was better at learning history than I was at using a rifle.

I have been a vegetarian for sixteen years and have no desire to hunt. But, I am also buying my first hunting license. So what’s going on? I think I need to put my money where my mouth is. And it isn’t a lot of money, compared to my perhaps rather large mouth. True, over the years, I’ve been contributed to the Nature Conservancy and am a Sierra Club life member. In 1992, I spent six months as a volunteer wilderness ranger for the Forest Service in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, so I’ve got some blood in the game. But it wouldn’t hurt to get further involved, because while what I’m doing here is very small, many small things done by many people add up. Hunters and non-hunter outdoorsmen share a love for wild country and the necessity of preserving it for not only ourselves but for those whose lives have not yet begun.

These days, I’m a pure traveler by pack or paddle, no longer fishing. But having read Sig Olson, who probably did more than any other single person to preserve the main character of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, I can understand why people hunt. His 1930 essay, “Why Wilderness,” is one of the best articles ever written about camping. A second, “Mallards are Special,” describing Basswood Lake’s Back Bay on a frosty autumn morning, hunters waiting for the season to open, made me realize that had I been raised a little differently in a place with wetlands, this might be my fortieth duck stamp instead of my first.

Preserving wildlands requires money, and more of it comes from hunters than backpackers, unless the latter hunt and fish. Since I use these places a great deal, I ought to pay something. You duck hunters know that 98% of the monies in the Federal Duck Stamp program are used to purchase or lease wetland habitat in the National Wildlife Refuges. The duck stamp also serves as an entrance pass to these areas. I like that idea, for I am an active birder and an urban trip leader for the Tucson Audubon Society.

Until recently, I didn’t know about the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937, which “provide(s) funding for the selection, restoration, rehabilitation and improvement of wildlife habitat.” Amended 33 years later, it included funding for hunter training programs and …public target ranges.” I am in favor of hunting safety programs and public target ranges. That’s common sense. The funding, as you hunters know all too well, comes from an 11% excise tax on sporting arms, ammunition and archery equipment. Remarkably, sportsmen insisted on keeping the tax in place despite a repeal bill’s having once been drawn up. Hunters saw the results, one of which was increasing whitetail populations.

Each state gets money dependent upon the total area and number of licensed hunters. The state pays the full amount of an approved project then applies for Federal reimbursement up to 75% of project expenses. So, while I’m not going to contribute by buying a weapon, one more hunting licensee in Arizona doesn’t hurt, either.

Some of my environmentalist friends tell me that we shouldn’t teach kids to hunt. I disagree. Getting them outside, away from electronic gadgets, is an important way to ensure the preservation of wilderness. Teaching them to take only what is necessary and to respect the life and spirit of an animal is a good thing, for one of our major problems is losing connection as a species to the land and its animals. What better advocates are there for woodlands and waterways than those who have hiked, camped and yes – hunted in them? If non-hunters think that we alone should advocate for wilderness, we are being both arrogant and shortsighted. We need to work with hunters, not against them.

Global climate change and overpopulation threaten wilderness as nothing has before. I’ll be glad to have my duck stamp and hunting license. I better get a combo hunting-fishing one, however, since I still have a bag of Dardevels, jitterbugs and leaders in the garage that I can’t bear to throw away. I fondly remember the summer day fifty-two years ago when I caught my first bass.