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There are three important 80th anniversaries to celebrate this year, events all related to the National Wildlife Refuge System and the "Duck Stamp."
The first was in March, with the passage of the Act creating the stamp in 1934.
The second was in August, with the very first "First Day of Sale" for the stamp.
The third may surprise you, so let's begin with the key individual behind all three of these events in that historic year.
Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling was the conservationist and cartoonist/artist who, among many other things, helped advocate for the creation of the stamp through his role in the Presidential "Committee on Wild-Life Restoration," a role he shared with two other perceptive conservationists, Thomas H. Beck and Aldo Leopold. Working over a few short weeks, the committee submitted its report in early February 1934. It included support for the stamp idea, a concept that had been circulating, unsuccessfully, for over a decade.
Ding Darling was soon appointed head of the Biological Survey, an agency then in the US Department of Agriculture, by FDR on March 10, 1934. Just six days later, Congress passed and the President signed the Duck Stamp Act on March 16, 1934.
One of Darling's associated tasks on the job in 1934 was to prepare a design for the new stamp, a short project he did on cardboard shirt-stiffeners laying in his office. He thought these were to be samples or prototypes, and he was chagrined when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing selected one of the drawings to grace the stamp, a pair of Mallards landing in a pond.
What you may not know is that Darling is also credited for designing the famous "Blue Goose" logo used on the signs on refuges starting that same year, although we do not know the exact date. The logo was an outline of a stylized Canada Goose, not the "Blue Goose" morph of the Snow Goose, as some people assert. The sign had the wording: "US Department of Agriculture Biological Survey." That's because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had yet to be created inside the Department of the Interior. Below the image of the goose were either the words "Migratory Bird Refuge" or "National Wildlife Refuge."
The first sign templates were black on a white background. (See the image here.) An existing label from the back of the first "Blue Goose" sign sample from the Erie Enameling Company of Erie, Pennsylvania, indicates that the signs could also be made in blue, instead of black. And, indeed, they have been ever since! (The original heavy signs, by the way, each weighed over four pounds.)
The flying-goose model sign replaced a standardized circular sign that dated back to 1903 when President Theodore Roosevelt created the Pelican Island Bird Reservation.
The three interrelated events 80 years ago are highly significant for wildlife protection in America. In fact, the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation [Duck] Stamp has now raised over $900 million since 1934, helping to secure over 5.5 million acres of habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife on the National Wildlife Refuge System across the lower-48 states.
It's remarkable to recall how much was started in that one year, how much was accomplished in 1934.
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Author David Govatski is a Duck Stamp advocate and President of the Friends of Pondicherry, a unit of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
This article first appeared in WINGTIPS, monthly publication of the Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp
http://www.friendsofthestamp.org)
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