

fa 



Snow geese at Sacramento Refuge. 



Howl were panic stricken and in poverty. Water- 

 fowl had reached the lowest point in their history. 

 Severe restrictions on the take were ordered, but 

 control of the hunter kill was far from the answer 

 to the basic problem of where the birds would 

 find suitable nesting cover, food, and protection. 

 The refuge program, which had seen an auspi- 

 cious beginning with the passage of the Norbeck- 

 Andresen Act. was also withering. Funds to im- 

 plement the act were unavailable during the 

 depression, and many conservationists predicted 

 early extinction of the Nation's ducks and geese. 

 Then in January 1934, President Franklin D. 

 Roosevelt appointed a special waterfowd commit- 

 tee consisting of Jay N. (Ding) Darling, famous 

 cartoonist; Thomas Beck, magazine editor and 

 avid duck hunter; and Aldo Leopold, one of the 

 Nation's foremost biologists. This committee im- 

 mediately set a goal of s.">() million for the purchase 

 ami restoration of submarginal and other lands 

 for wildlife, with special emphasis on migratory 

 waterfowl. Such breadth of imagination brought 

 a public gasp, yet it fired the enthusiasm of con- 

 servationists everywhere. Ding Darling came in 

 as Chief of the Biological Survey and changed 

 the course of refuge history. More than any other 

 single individual in conservation history he pro- 

 claimed the plight of drought-stricken and over- 

 shot ducks with his eloquent tongue, his facile 

 pen. and his pungent cartoons. 



In a short time. $8,500,000 of emergency funds 

 were obtained to buy lands and construct fences, 

 dikes, dams, and necessary buildings, as follows: 

 A special fund of $1,000,000 was set aside by the 

 President for the purchase of migratory water- 

 fowl refuges: $1,500,000 was allocated from the 

 submarginal land retirement fund: $3,500,000 was 

 allocated from drought-relief funds, for purchase 

 and development of lands within drought stricken 

 areas: $2,500,000 was allotted from WPA funds. 

 for engineering operations, to construct water- 

 level controls and to improve the refuges 



It was in this setting of excited interest among 

 sportsmen and conservationists that the Duck 

 Stamp Act. formally known as the Migratory Bird 

 Hunting Stamp Act, came into being; its purpose 

 was — 



to supplement and support the Migratory Bird Conserva- 

 tion Act by providing funds for the acquisition of areas 

 for use as migratory-bird sanctuaries, refuges, and breed- 

 ing grounds, for developing and administering such areas, 

 for the protection of certain migratory birds, for the en- 

 forcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and regula- 

 tions thereunder, and for other purposes. 



Ding Darling drew the design for the first Duck 

 Stamp. During the first year, its -ale added al- 

 most *000.000 to the funds available for the 

 national program. 



Frsnzied activity among the small staff of the 

 Biological Survey under Darling's leadership, full 



