Comments on: Duck Stamps and Duck Hunting

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:51:26 +0000

Duck makes a valid point as well.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:31:19 +0000

Jim, that may be true but the study I wrote about shows that the link is breaking down. Others need to step up to the plate.

Lyle, the total number of duck stamps that are sold to non hunters … people supporting the wildlife conservation effort plus stamp collectors … has historically been below about 10%. It is not a trivial number, but it is not a driving force. (Source: Adams, C. E., J. A. Leifester, and J. S. C. Herron. 1997. Understanding wildlife constituents: birders and waterfowl hunters. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:653–660. cited in the paper I refer to in the OP)

By: Duck

Duck — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:27:17 +0000

“The duck’s best friend carries a shotgun.”

My best friend carries a pair of binoculars.

Quack.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:20:31 +0000

I like the idea of wildlife stamps. Birding in one province (Ontario) brought in more money than hunting did in all of Canada by a couple orders of magnitude in the early 90s. Hazy memory says 4 billion vs 4 million but I don’t trust that. Also, I’m curious what it is now as hunters are declining.

But if we could tap into a bit of the money being spent by just birders we may not have to cut services and close some of our parks.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:46:26 +0000

I should point out that stamp collectors are another big source of the purchase of duck stamps up till recently they have tended to increase in value over time.

By: Jim Thomerson

Jim Thomerson — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:16:04 +0000

The duck’s best friend carries a shotgun. I think I made that up, but I may have read it somewhere. I recall reading a conversation where a birder was asking why an public area was open to duck hunting and closed for other activities. The answer was that the duck hunters paid for the area, therefore their use took precedence during the duck season,

I understand that the few pieces of natural, unfarmed areas along the Illinois River are the lands of private duck clubs.

By: Russell Seitz

Russell Seitz — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:08:01 +0000

As America boasts binoculars and shotguns in roughly equal abundance, I applaud Greg’s proposal to make birders into supporters of conservation on the same scale.

By: jane

jane — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:16:32 +0000

There are times when “shoot[ing] a wild thing” directly contributes to wildlife protection. If you banned deer hunting in the eastern U.S. without simultaneously re-introducing large predators [which is a nice idea, but a political impossibility], you would see deer populations skyrocket, eat everything in sight, then start dying of famine and disease. Shooting deer is actually good for the deer as a group, not to mention the endangered plants they might eat as they are starving, nor the other animals who depend on the habitats they might eat. This shouldn’t be a shocker. We don’t think that other predatory animals are bad for the ecosystem because they hunt, after all.