The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today the nation’s oldest, most prestigious wildlife art competition will take place in Minnesota next year as the Service’s Midwest Region hosts the 2008 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest.
The winning design chosen at the contest will be made into the 2009-2010 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, or Duck Stamp, the cornerstone of one of the world’s most successful conservation programs.
“I am pleased to announce that the 2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest will be hosted in the nations heartland, with its strong heritage of hunting, fishing and bird watching,” said Dale Hall, Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. “Midwesterners feel passionately about stewardship of land and waters for wild creatures and for future generations, and this is a great place for choosing the artwork to grace the Federal Duck Stamp.”
The $15 Federal Duck Stamp is a vital tool for wetland conservation, with 98 cents of every dollar generated going to purchase or lease wetland habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Since the stamp’s inception, more than $700 million has been raised to acquire more than 5.2 million acres of habitat and hundreds of refuges across the Nation to conserve America’s fish and wildlife resources.
“In 2008, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Small Wetlands Program, created to stem the rapid loss of important small wetland and grassland habitat across the Prairie Pothole Region of the upper Midwest,” Hall said. “In its half-century of existence, the Small Wetlands Program has developed into one of the most successful landscape-level conservation efforts in the United States, complementing the success of the Federal Duck Stamp.”
The 2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest will take place during late September or early October in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
“The 2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest will be all about celebrating our heritage,” Hall said. “Our country’s waterfowling and conservation heritage, and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s heritage of dedicated wildlife professionals. We will also celebrate our future, and the opportunity to pass down the legacy of conservation to our younger generations.”
The first Federal Duck Stamp was designed in 1934 by Midwest native, editorial cartoonist and Director of the Bureau of Biological Survey J.N. “Ding” Darling. It sold for $1. In 2006, more than 1.6 million people purchased a Federal Duck Stamp. Every waterfowl hunter over the age of 16 is required to buy a Federal Duck Stamp. In addition, Federal Duck Stamps are highly sought after by collectors and provide free entry into any national wildlife refuge national wildlife refuge
A national wildlife refuge is typically a contiguous area of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the conservation and, where appropriate, restoration of fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
Learn more about national wildlife refuge in the country that charges an entrance fee.
The Federal Duck Stamp Contest is the only federally sponsored art competition. Hundreds of prominent wildlife artists from across the country enter each year, with the winning design gracing the following year’s stamp. While the winner receives no money from the federal government, the winning artist benefits from the increased visibility and sale of their prints and artwork.
The winner of the 2007 Federal Duck Stamp Contest, Joseph Hautman, hails from Plymouth, Minn. His painting of a pair of northern pintail ducks was chosen from among 247 images by a distinguished panel of five judges on Oct. 13 in Sanibel, Fla. Hautman’s stamp will be the 75th Federal Duck Stamp.
Minnesota wildlife artists have created 17 of 75 Federal Duck Stamps—more than any other state--and Minnesotans have purchased more than 9.1 million duck stamps since 1934.
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 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources 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 and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
