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Waterfowl Outfitters Unlimited.
My federal duck stamp arrived in the
mail this past week — finally.
Like tens of thousands of Texas waterfowl
hunters, I was getting a little antsy about the $15 federal stamp, officially
named the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and required by federal
law to be possessed (and signed in ink) by any person 16 or older hunting ducks
or geese.
I'd purchased the stamp — and paid $17 for it
— at a Houston-area sporting goods store nearly four weeks earlier, when I
bought my 2009-10 Texas hunting and fishing licenses and assorted special-use
stamps.
But, as part of a new program in effect in
Texas and seven other states, I wasn't issued an actual federal duck stamp.
Instead, my Texas license included a printed notation: “Federal Duck Stamp —
valid for 45 days.” The stamp, the license clerk said, would be mailed to me. I
should get it in two weeks — three weeks.
That didn't happen for me. Nor did it for
many of the 60,000-plus other folks who, since 2009-10 licenses went on sale in
mid-August, purchased federal ducks stamps through the
1,700 or so sites selling Texas' hunting/fishing license through the state's
computerized system.
A lot of Texas waterfowl hunters who
purchased their federal duck stamps when they bought their hunting licenses
have waited weeks to get the stamp. Some may have even discarded the envelope
with the stamp, unaware the federal stamp would be mailed to them. And a
considerable number appear to be unclear on the differences between the federal
and state duck stamp rules.
It took a literal act of Congress to
implement the program. Under federal law on the books since 1934, waterfowl
hunters 16 and older must possess a valid, signed federal duck stamp. Money
generated from sale of the annual stamps — 1.5 million federal duck stamps were
sold nationwide and about 151,000 in Texas in 2007, the most recent year for
which numbers are available — is used exclusively to purchase Waterfowl
Production Areas and land for federal wildlife refuges.
The Electronic Duck Stamp Act passed by
Congress in 2006 allowed electronic sales of ducks stamps and a 45-day
exemption.
Under the e-stamp program, states with
computerized license issuance systems can sell the federal stamp and send,
electronically, the buyer's information (home address) to a
federally-contracted, private “fulfillment” business that will mail the stamp
to the buyer.
To cover the cost of the “fulfilment,”
$2 is added to the $15 cost of the federal stamp. That additional $2 goes to
pay Amplex, the Grand Prairie-based private business
handling the e-stamp fulfillment.
Texas eased into the federal e-stamp program
this past year. Only hunters purchasing federal duck stamps at Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department offices were issued e-stamps.
Hit with the crush of orders, Amplex was a bit overwhelmed. It took them weeks to get the
stamps in the mail.
“It's a new process, and it'll take a little
time to work the kinks out of it,” said Tom Newton of TPWD's license branch.
The plan was to get the federal stamps to
buyers within two or three weeks. With the overload, it's taking 4-5 weeks.
But there are other glitches with the new
e-stamp.
Some purchasers of e-stamps are not aware the
federal stamp will be mailed to them, and assume the notation on license is all
they'll need. Not true. But the confusion is understandable.
Texas requires hunters of migratory birds —
all migratory birds: doves, sandhill cranes, snipe
and other migratory birds as well as ducks and geese — purchase a $7 Texas
Migratory Game Bird Stamp. But it's not an actual stamp; it's simply an
endorsement on the license.
Federal law mandates hunters have the actual
stamp — the standard fine for being caught hunting waterfowl without possessing
the stamp is $200. And odds of the Feds ever abandoning the physical duck stamp
and going to a simple notation on a license are near zero. It would take
another act of Congress to change the current rules.
Plus, there is considerable opposition to
doing away with the physical federal duck stamp. A whole industry has been
built on buying and selling federal duck stamps and prints of the art used on
those stamps.
Texas waterfowl hunters will have to pay a
couple of dollars more for their federal stamps and learn to look for the
actual stamp to come in the mail two or three weeks later. Or they can hit a half-dozen post offices and hope to find one of the few
that stocks the actual stamps.