WAYNESBORO, Pa. – An important youth conservation initiative is now being supported by Buttonwood Nature Center, home of the Institute.
Buttonwood is the new Pennsylvania state coordinator for the federal junior duck stamp program, according to Tracy Holliday, executive director.
“The federal junior duck stamp program is a dynamic art- and science-based curriculum that teaches wetland and waterfowl conservation to students in kindergarten through high school,” added Buttonwood staffer Michelle Smith, who is the junior duck stamp coordinator and educator.
“The program encourages students to explore their natural world, invites them to investigate biology and wildlife management principles and challenges them to express and share what they have learned with others,” Smith said.
“After studying waterfowl anatomy and habitat, students may express their newfound knowledge by drawing, painting or sketching a picture of an eligible North American waterfowl species and submitting it to their state’s junior duck stamp art contest,” added Smith.
“The junior duck stamp program dovetails perfectly with Buttonwood’s mission and activities,” Holliday said. “Anchored in our stewardship mission, our efforts to inspire and support conservation and our wholehearted embrace of helping others enjoy the inherent intersection of nature and art, it is our joy to add this program to the ways in which we can connect people to the natural world, to the arts and to one another,” she added.
Pennsylvania’s junior duck stamp art contest took place March 26 in Waynesboro with 200 entries received from all over the state of Pennsylvania. The panel of five judges included Waynesboro artist Seth Holmes, Linette Mansberger, an expert birder involved with South Mountain Audubon, Buttonwood Assistant Director Jessica Watson, Larry Williams, leader of SOAR (Studying Ornithology Around the Region) birdwalks program sponsored by Buttonwood, and Miranda Russell, a member of the Buttonwood board of directors and watershed specialist/Envirothon coordinator for Franklin County Conservation District.
High school junior Kathryne Huang of Eagleville was selected as the “Best of Show” winner and will represent Pennsylvania at the national contest April 21 at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia.
Entries may be submitted through the student’s school, art studio, home school or after school program, according to Smith, who was the state coordinator for the West Virginia junior duck stamp program when she worked at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown. She joined Buttonwood in January.
The winning artwork from the national art contest serves as the design for the junior duck stamp, a collectible stamp, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service produces annually and is sold for $5, Smith said. “One hundred percent of the revenue from the sale of junior duck stamps go to support recognition and environmental education activities for students who participate in the program.
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