21 FEBRUARY 2013

The Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp is concerned that the funding for the Jr. Duck Stamp Program is in serious jeopardy within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The program has proven to be a tremendous success since its launch in the early 1990s. It mobilizes over 27,000 students per year, connecting children with nature through science and the arts. In fact, March 15th is the deadline for submitting art for most state Junior Duck Stamp contests.

In a recent letter to Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp stressed that the Jr. Duck Stamp effort "is one of the very best programs in the Service to reach out to a broad sector of our American youth to launch – and eventually commit to – a conservation ethic and to appreciate the role that the Service plays in helping sustain those values. It's an ideal tool, and relatively cheap, a communications and youth education vehicle that needs to be maintained well beyond this year's contest."

The program also is one of the best links to "create and sustain a constituency for the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation [Duck] Stamp, teaching younger Americans  – and reminding their parents – of the value of waterfowl, wetland, and grassland conservation."

While appreciating the difficult decisions that have to be made inside the USFWS these days, particularly when budget issues are imposing themselves on important programs and activities, the letter requested that Ashe use the power of his position to "reverse any adverse funding decision and to continue to give the Jr. Duck Stamp program the support it so richly deserves."