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Thread: Duck Stamps

  1. #1
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    Default Duck Stamps

    Assembly passes ‘duck stamp’ fee that will boost funding for state’s fragile wetlands

    ANDREW S. LEWIS | MAY 24, 2021 | ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT


    New Jersey’s 2007 “duck stamp” featured a painting by Michael Braun of a Chocolate Labrador Retriever puppy examining a green-winged teal decoy; the decoy was carved by the artist’s father, Ed O. Braun Jr.

    It was 1996 when New Jersey last raised the price of its “duck stamp,” the required — and once famously collectible — waterfowl hunting permits that help fund wetlands and other environmental projects throughout the state.

    That may be about to change. A move is underway to double the modest $5 fee for residents and boost the funds for needed projects — all with the apparent support of hunters themselves.

    The stamps have a rich heritage, often treated as works of art and collected far beyond the Garden State.

    “There’s a waterfowling heritage in the state,” said Chris Sebastian, spokesperson for Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit that has worked with New Jersey to preserve and rehabilitate wetland habitats.

    “These stamps are seen as part of that culture, as part of the act of going out there every season and hunting. They gave you a kind of visual timeline of good memories,” he added.

    On Thursday, a bill (A-3897) to increase the cost of the stamps to $10 for residents, and from $10 to $15 for nonresidents, unanimously passed in the Assembly. If the identical version of the bill (S-3263) passes the Senate before the June recess with a majority vote, the fee increase could take effect this year.

    In 2013, the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of waterfowl hunters, of which there are just over 10,000 throughout New Jersey, finding that a small majority (55%) supported doubling the current resident and nonresident fees, so long as the funds continued “to be used for waterfowl habitat acquisition and enhancement.”

    Last March, Assemblymen John Armato and Vincent Mazzeo (D-Atlantic), along with Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso (R-Monmouth), introduced the bill.

    “The price should have been updated more often than it has been,” said Armato, the bill’s lead sponsor, after Thursday’s vote. “Any time we can raise money and earmark it solely for wetlands restitution and preservation is a good thing.”

    A direct stake in conservation
    Duck stamps have a long history in New Jersey and nationwide.

    New Jersey was one of the earliest states to develop a dedicated funding source for open-space acquisition, and its passage of the New Jersey Waterfowl Stamp Act in 1984 was among a wave of similar legislation across the country that imposed fees on hunters to improve the wetlands they relied on for recreation. The federal government had created its own stamp program in 1934, and several states quickly followed. The programs were embraced by hunters — today, all 50 states require annual waterfowl stamps.

    A large reason why New Jersey’s stamp program was well-received by waterfowl hunters was that it gave them a direct stake in the preservation of the state’s 903,000 acres of combined fresh- and saltwater wetlands. Since its inception, the program has raised over $3.5 million and aided in the purchase of more than 17,000 acres of wetlands up and down the state.

    But it has not just been about conservation. The program also fostered an artistic legacy cherished by many of New Jersey’s waterfowl hunters. In 1971, California commissioned a wildlife artist to design that state’s first duck stamp, and the era of pictorial stamps began. New Jersey’s first stamp, in 1984, featured a pair of canvasbacks, painted by Turnersville artist Rob Leslie. Prints of the artwork were available for sale and the proceeds went back to the acquisition and conservation fund. Both the stamps and the prints became sought-after collector’s items that could fetch hundreds of dollars each at auction.

    Credit: (Courtesy NJ Department of Environmental Protection)
    The 25th anniversary stamp, issued by New Jersey in 2008, featured a hen and drake canvasback painted by artist Rob Leslie.
    In 2008, the artwork commissions, physical stamps and prints were discontinued “as a cost saving measure since the considerable expense of producing the artwork and stamps resulted in few funds being available for the purchase of waterfowl habitat,” according to the state. Most other state stamps have suffered the same fate.

    Today, New Jersey waterfowl hunters simply receive a “certification” card that — void of any art — they can order online and print out at home.

    A little stamp with big results
    While the days of state-regulation-as-fine-art may be over, the power of the duck stamp lives on.

    The concerted effort between states to raise money for wetlands acquisition and rehabilitation has helped yield a rare affirmative moment in what has otherwise been a difficult half-century for the world’s bird populations.

    According to researchers, the North American continent has lost some 3 billion birds, or 30% of its total in the early 1970s. Despite that loss, however, waterfowl and raptor populations have thrived, thanks to habitat restoration and conservation efforts funded in part by programs like New Jersey’s annual waterfowl stamp.

    “Ducks and geese have increased over the last 30 years,” said Sebastian. “That’s directly related to conservation efforts from groups like Ducks Unlimited and the states and federal government, who have these stamp programs in place.”

    Much of the stamp-funded waterfowl habitat preservation efforts in New Jersey have been concentrated in the southern counties, where the bulk of the state’s most vulnerable salt and freshwater wetlands are located.

    Sebastian pointed to the Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area, a 17,500-acre tract of tidal marsh, woodland and fields in Atlantic and Cape May counties. In 2013, Ducks Unlimited partnered with the state to restore 941 acres of 1940s-era water impoundments throughout the management area. Since then, 800 additional acres have been added for permanent protection.

    “It costs a lot of money to protect our wetland habitats,” Sebastian said. “So having this extra money on hand will allow us, the state, and lots of other conservation partners to have more resources to do more good work.”

    The stamps, Sebastian continued, “are one little piece, but they add up.”

    Benefits beyond hunting — especially today
    While New Jersey’s duck stamp was originally targeted at preserving and enhancing wetland habitats for the benefit of its waterfowl sportswomen and men, the benefits of the program extend beyond the state’s hunting community.

    By the early 1980s, 54% of the wetlands in the United States had been lost to draining or filling for development and agriculture. New Jersey, too, had by then seen half of its wetlands disappear. While large-scale draining and filling has mostly ceased in the state, significant wetlands loss continues today, due to subsidence and the erosive effects of sea-level rise. On the Delaware Bayshore, for example, it is estimated that a football field’s worth of marshland is lost every year.

    The state’s wetlands also act as buffer zones against flooding for adjacent, and often populated, coastal upland areas.

    “With global warming, everything is changing on a daily basis,” Armato said, whose district includes the barrier island towns of Brigantine, Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate and Longport. “In Atlantic County, we’re looking at projections and they don’t paint a pretty picture.”

    Wetlands also replenish groundwater sources — and in New Jersey that is a critical detail. The 3,000-square-mile, 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer spans nearly a third of the state, including the entirety of South Jersey. More than 125 million gallons are pulled from the aquifer each day, a rate that is draining the source faster than it can be replenished.

    “These wetlands are nature’s kidney’s,” Sebastian said. “They filter out pollutants, help refill groundwater and give us safe and clean places to play.”

    For Armato, the boosting of the duck stamp program is not only a rare example of bipartisanship, but also an easy way to keep pushing forward in the fight against the environmental impacts of climate change.

    “I have four grandkids and three great-grandchildren,” he said. “I want their world to be what my world is and not drastically changed, so let’s do everything we can today to help the future.”

    https://www.njspotlight.com/2021/05/...ation-hunting/

  2. #2
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    Michael carves some pretty decent birds himself...

  3. #3
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    Do nonresident people actually buy a SC duck stamp lol
    "I'm just a victim of a circumstance"

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by coot nasty View Post
    Do resident people actually buy a SC duck stamp lol
    FIFY

    At the very least, rename it a "sunrise stamp" due to lack of ducks.
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  5. #5
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    Paintings of puppies and ducks. Puppies and decoys. Puppies and old coats and duck calls. Puppies barely old enough to walk all in a skiff. Jeez.

  6. #6
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    Duck stamps are a good tradition. Sad we're getting rid of em.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gunning Bird View Post
    Michael carves some pretty decent birds himself...
    He did a Redhead urn decoy for me several years back after I lost my yellow lab, Daisy. His work is amazing!

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