A portrayal of a trumpeter swan won first place in the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest held yesterday in Washington, D.C. The contest is sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
An acrylic painting by 18-year-old Aremy McCann of St. Joseph, Minnesota, was judged the top painting among the 51 state winners. McCanns painting will become 2001-02 Federal Junior Duck Stamp, which is sold for $5 by the Fish and Wildlife Services Federal Duck Stamp Office to stamp collectors and conservationists. Aremy is home schooled by her mother, Tammy McCann.
Students from Minnesota have won the contest 2 years in a row. Last year Bonnie Latham of Hastings brought home first place.
Lindsay Simon, age 17, of Orange, Texas, took second place with her acrylic painting of a hooded merganser. Lindsay studies at A Little Cypress Mauriceville High School. Tommy Humphrey is her art teacher.
Stephanie Bishop of Forest Grove, Oregon, took third with "Ruffled Feathers," a mallard duck pastel on a suede mat board. The 15-year-old is home schooled by teacher Roberta St. Louis.
Creating the Junior Duck Stamp design is a major part of the year long Junior Duck Stamp conservation curriculum used by educators in their classrooms. Each state sends Junior Duck Stamp design entries to a designated point where they are judged by a group of people active in the local wildlife art or conservation community.
State "Best of Show" winning designs are sent to Washington, D.C., where three national winners are chosen by a panel of five judges. The top three Junior Duck Stamp Contest winners receive a free trip to Washington, D.C., along with their art teachers and one of their parents, the following November to be honored at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest. The first-place winner also receives a $2,500 scholarship award.
Judges for this years national Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest were: Paul Schmidt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy assistant director for Migratory Birds and State Programs; Mark castle, lead printing officer for the Service; Patricia Fisher of the Services Public Affairs office; Mike Hacker from the office of U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan; and Pat Burke, exhibition manager at the Smithsonian Institutions National Postal Museum.
The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl species native to North America. Trumpeter swans can weigh up to 35 pounds and have 8-foot wingspans. Their name comes from their trumpet-like call. Through efforts of reintroduction and the establishment of national wildlife refuges, there are about 500 trumpeter swans in the Midwest, more than 500 in the tri-state area of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, and more than 1,600 in Canada. There were fewer than 70 in the continental United States in 1932.
For more information on the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation Program and Design Contest, contact Terry Bell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Duck Stamp Office, 1849 C Street, NW, Room 2058, Washington, D.C. 20240; telephone: 202- 208-4354.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 94-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 535 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
- FWS -
For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,visit our home page at http://www.fws.gov
