Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us on this first day of sale event for the 2005-2006 Federal Duck Stamp.

The Duck Stamps before us are part of a proud tradition of conservation, going back more than 7 decades. The stamps - the symbols of this event - have changed over the years, but their fundamental purpose has not.

Every hunter, stamp collector and refuge visitor who buys a duck stamp becomes an important partner in conservation. Those seemingly small purchases have added up to a great work of stewardship - one stamp, one purchase, one acre at a time.

Since Ding Darling originated the Duck Stamp in 1934, more than 700 million duck stamp dollars have helped to purchase more than 5.2 million acres of land for the refuge system. That's an area almost the size of the state of New Jersey.

Nearly 98 cents of every dollar raised goes directly toward wetlands, toward buying land for the conservation of waterfowl habitat at hundreds of refuges across the nation.

I appreciate the support we have received from the members of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission - Senators Blanche Lincoln and Thad Cochran and Representatives John Dingell and Curt Weldon.

The substance of conservation is entwined with the symbols on the stamp. Duck stamps show the wonder of waterfowl, the beauty that is ours to care for.

This year's design features a pair of hooded merganser drakes. It was created by Mark Anderson, who has turned his love of the outdoors into a professional living and a living philosophy.

Mark is a hunter and a fisherman. Like the many individuals who will purchase Duck Stamps this year, Mark also understands the value of conservation. So does Kerissa Nelson, the winner of this year's Junior Duck stamp contest.

Conservation is a continuous, cooperative effort. That is what Duck Stamps are all about. They are one of the early examples of cooperative conservation. Responsible hunters proposed duck stamps to conserve waterfowl populations.

Duck Stamps are designed to encourage many forms of conservation. They are beautiful collectables. They are required for waterfowl hunting. Duck stamps will even get you into a National Wildlife Refuge that charges an entrance fee.

Waterfowl are not the only birds to benefit from important habitat secured by Duck Stamps.

Duck Stamp dollars were used to purchase a significant portion of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, where the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was recently rediscovered.

Each person who purchases a Duck Stamp is an implicit partner in that gift of a second chance, the recovery of the Ivory Bill.

But there is more. Each person who purchases a Duck Stamp is also explicit partner in the many other works of conservation around the Nation.

So today, let us go forward as partners. As we take these stamps, these symbols of conservation in our hands, let us take the substance of stewardship in our hearts.