Moose Droppings

Duck Stamp goes High Tech

Aug 02, 2006 @ 11:11 pm by Moose

I barely hear the phone over the sound of Charlie Daniel’s screaming out of my stereo. Rick the luckiest man in the world ( self proclaimed title because he is single and retired “the only decision I have to make every day is do I want to hunt or fish today?”) is on the other end of the line wanting to know if I can call in sick tomorrow cause he has a line on a flock of geese that we can lay out. Well heck with everything going on the season snuck up on me “sure I can get the morning off”. After we get a meeting place for the morning set up I hang up and begin scrambling to get my stuff together for the hunt.

The season was already a week old but I had missed the traditional opening because I was traveling. Do I have shells? Where’s the Pattern Master Choke Tube? A quick run out to the shed to get the Cabela’s layout blind and the decoys. Where are my calls? Then it hits me DUCK STAMP. In my hurry the past few weeks getting to the Post Office to get one never happened. It’s almost 8pm and the post office closed so it looks like my hunt is off. I begin calling all the local Wal Marts and finally find one that has a stamp I lucked out and the hunt is saved.

This happened a few years ago but with the recent changes Congress has made to the Federal Duck Stamp program a scramble to find a stamp maybe a thing of the past.

The popular “duck stamp” program, which has generated some $700 million for wildlife habitat preservation since its inception in 1934, will go electronic on a trial basis under legislation approved by Congress Monday.
The measure passed by the House would set up a three-year pilot program in 15 states enabling hunters, conservationists and stamp collectors to purchase their duck stamps over the phone or Internet. The vote was 358-4.
“Hunters will be able to spend more time enjoying nature rather than waiting in lines to purchase their duck stamp,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said in an earlier statement. The bill has already cleared the Senate.
Under the 1934 law, all migratory waterfowl hunters 16 years of age or older must buy a federal migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp annually.
Revenue from the stamps, different from hunting licenses, have been used to preserve some 5.2 million acres of migratory waterfowl habitat.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said 122 million stamps have been sold. He said that if the three-year pilot program proves successful, Congress could act to make the electronic sales permanent.
The bill is S. 1496.

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