[mou] paying to use state wildlife land

[Sharon Stiteler]

> Audubon, Nature Conservancy, National resources Defense Council,  
> Wilderness Society, American Rivers,etc., etc.


I appreciate some of those organizations and even belong to at least  
one, but I wonder if any of those organizations are as efficient with  
their money as the duck stamp program.  Less than 2% of the money  
from duck stamps goes to administrative costs, the rest goes to  
buying up habitat--that's over 98%.

I really am surprised at the notion that because birders aren't  
"harvesting" ducks they shouldn't have to help buy up habitat so they  
can have the right to watch birds for free.  You can watch birds  
anywhere, great birds are in backyards, but we need those breeding  
grounds in place to keep seeing them.  Duck stamps help support other  
birds like warblers, rails, herons, egrets, raptors, owls, etc.   
Right now, duck hunters have to buy a stamp, but their numbers are  
going down.  If those numbers continue to decline, so will money for  
buying up habitat and all the birders who feel that they can use the  
resource for free won't have much resource left to look at, let alone  
the birds that benefit from that habitat.

Sharon Stiteler
Minneapolis, MN
www.birdchick.com
Bird/Wildlife Observation Specialist for www.eagleoptics.com