What began as an amendment to the Migratory Bird Hunting Act of 1934 (“Duck Stamp Act”) is now celebrating half a century of conservation success. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Small Wetlands Program, which the Service created to stem the loss of prairie habitat, began as an amendment to the Duck Stamp Act. The Small Wetlands Program authorizes the Service to use funds from the sales of Duck Stamps to acquire wetlands and surrounding areas for the benefit migratory waterfowl. In existence since August 1, 1958, the program has developed into one of the most successful conservation efforts in the United States.

Since its inception, the Small Wetlands Program has protected nearly 3 million acres of prairie habitat in the United States. Ninety-five percent of that habitat is located within the Prairie Pothole Region, a region of glacially-formed “potholes,” harboring countless shallow ponds and marshes. The Service has focused its protection efforts on the breeding grounds in the U.S. portion of the Prairie Pothole region. This 100,000-square-mile area in the upper Midwest and northern Great Plains contains some of the most important waterfowl- and grassland-bird species habitat on the continent. The entire Prairie Pothole Region extends into Canada and covers, in total, a 300,000-square-mile area.

"The wetlands and virgin grasslands in the Prairie Pothole Region are among the most endangered habitat in the country," said Service Director H. Dale Hall. "While the region accounts for just 10 percent of North American waterfowl breeding habitat, it produces nearly half of the continent's total ducks. The benefits of these wetlands and grasslands extend far beyond the prairies to impact the entire North American continent."

The Prairie Pothole Region also provides valuable habitat for a large proportion of the total U.S. populations of many grassland-bird species.  These species concentrate in the region during the breeding season. Grassland species of birds are in trouble, if not in significant decline, due to habitat loss, predators, changing farming and ranching practices, and fire suppression. The habitat that the Small Wetlands Program protects supports a variety of migratory bird species, including bobolink, grasshopper sparrow, clay-colored sparrow, and sedge wren.

Under the Small Wetlands Program, the Service has purchased more than 36,000 fee-title and permanent-easement tracts. These land parcels make up the 3 million acres of lands the Service administers as waterfowl-production areas under its National Wildlife Refuge System. They include more than 29,000 permanent easements, covering 2.1 million acres, and approximately 7,000 fee tracts, totaling more than 677,000 acres. All the WPAs the Service owns in fee are open to the public for a variety of activities. These include bird watching, hunting, photography and environmental education.

But despite these gains, more than half of the original wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region have vanished as a result of massive wetland-drainage programs and development.

"Our ability to acquire, protect, and manage critical migratory bird habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region is under tremendous pressure. In order to sustain the migratory bird populations, we need to raise awareness of this vital program and encourage people to support it by purchasing Federal Duck Stamps," Hall said. "Buying a Duck Stamp is the easiest and most effective thing a person can do to help protect waterfowl and other migratory birds and their habitat."

The Federal Duck Stamp is a vital tool for wetland conservation, with 98 cents of every dollar the stamps generate going toward the Service’s purchase or lease of wetland habitat for the Refuge System. Since 1934, stamp sales have raised more than $700 million. The Service has been able to use the funds to acquire more than 5.2 million acres of habitat and hundreds of refuges across the nation to conserve America's fish and wildlife resources.

President Bush's 2009 budget proposal asks Congress to increase the price of the Federal Duck Stamp from $15 to $25 — the first such increase since 1991. The increase in revenue, which the Service projects will be about $14 million annually, would protect and restore critical habitat for migratory waterfowl. More specifically, the increase in funding would allow the Service to acquire about 6,800 additional acres of migratory-bird habitat. It would also enable them to secure easements for 10,000 additional wetlands per year across the nation.

For information on the Federal Duck Stamp Program and how to purchase a stamp to help conserve wetlands, visit www.fws.gov/duckstamps/.
For information on the Small Wetlands Program, visit www.fws.gov/refuges/smallwetlands.