Illinois teen Amanda Edsall, a 17-year-old high school student from Canton, captured third place in the federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Competition last weekend with her mixed-media rendition of a wood duck, titled "Pride". Edsalls art teacher is Marnie Eskridge of Canton High School.
Sponsored each year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest is the culmination of a yearlong conservation curriculum used by educators in their classrooms. All 50 states host competitions during which Junior Duck Stamp design entries from various age groups are judged by a group of people active in the local wildlife art or conservation community.
One "Best of Show" design from each state is sent to Washington, D.C., where a panel of five judges chooses one national winner, as well as second and third place paintings. The Junior Duck Stamp Contest winner receives a free trip to Washington, D.C., along with his or her art teacher, a parent and the state coordinator the following November to be honored at the federal Duck Stamp Contest. The first-place winner also receives a $4,000 scholarship award.
A portrayal of a green-winged teal pair took first place in the Junior Duck Stamp Contest, which was held this year in Ocean City, Md., in conjunction with the Ward World Champion Carving Competition. An acrylic painting by 18-year-old Nathan Bauman of Jonestown, Penn., was judged the top painting among the winners from 50 states plus the District of Columbia and American Samoa.
Baumans painting will become 2003-2004 federal Junior Duck Stamp, which the Fish and Wildlife Services federal Duck Stamp Office makes available for $5 to stamp collectors and conservationists. Proceeds from Junior Duck Stamp sales are used to support participants in the program and a scholarship for contest winners.
Baumans art teacher is Linda Hilgert at Lebanon County Career and Technology Center.
Colby Brandt of Sealy, Texas, took second place with a colored pencil called "Woodies," a depiction of a pair of wood ducks. The 18-year-old studies at Sealy High School, where Ray Neal is his art teacher.
"The federal Junior Duck Stamp program helps foster a conservation ethic in Americas youth," said Service Director Steve Williams. "By combining the arts and wildlife conservation into one curriculum, students learn about wildlife management principles as well as the aesthetic qualities of wildlife and nature."
Judges for this years national Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest were: Lynn Greenwalt, former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Ron Louque, winner of the 2002 Federal Duck Stamp Contest; Robert Williams of Stamp Services at the U.S. Postal Service; June Lyon, a nationally recognized wildlife carver and former federal Duck Stamp Contest judge; and Ken Basile, executive director of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury University.
For more information or copies of the winning images, please see < http://duckstamps.fws.gov > or call 202/208-5636.
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 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 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.
