On the topic of wildlife conservation (i.e. Bob Dunlap's post on Recovering America's Wildlife Act), the American Birding Association (ABA) is now selling federal Duck Stamps in an effort to quantify the number of birders supporting wetland protection. 98% of the cost goes towards directly to purchasing wetland habitat. https://www.aba.org/store/2019-2020-duck-stamp /
Even though there are conservation taxes on hunters and anglers through the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts, there are no such taxes on wildlife-viewers. Binoculars, spotting scopes, etc. have no additional tax that goes towards habitat protection, even though we often use visit protected areas to go birding. So I know some birders buy Duck Stamps--even if they're not hunters--every year to "pay their dues." If you already regularly buy Duck Stamps, thank you! If you don't want to get them through the ABA website, there are a number of shops in Minnesota where you can buy them in-person (those that sell hunting licenses, or National Wildlife Refuge gift shops). I do think it would be interesting to get them through ABA though, since they're keeping track of the number of birders buying them. Good birding! Alyssa DeRubeis formerly Golden Valley, Hennepin Co. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
