{"id":20803,"date":"2018-03-29T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=20803"},"modified":"2018-03-28T14:31:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:31:32","slug":"black-bear-and-migratory-game-bird-stamp-winners-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/03\/29\/black-bear-and-migratory-game-bird-stamp-winners-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Bear and Migratory Game Bird Stamp Winners Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annual Contest Brings Entries from Seven States<\/em><\/p>\n

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“Looking Back” by Steve Oliver<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a>\u00a0announced that a Delaware resident won this year\u2019s Maryland Black Bear Conservation Stamp Design Contest, while the award for top Migratory Game Bird Stamp Design went to a resident of Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges March 17 at the 18th Annual Eagle Festival at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to the winning entries and thank you to everyone who submitted terrific artwork this year,\u201d\u00a0Wildlife and Heritage Service<\/a>\u00a0Director Paul Peditto, said. \u201cEvery entry showcases the talents of some gifted artists while supporting important conservation efforts to understand and protect our wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Oliver of New Castle, Delaware won the 22nd Annual Maryland Black Bear Conservation Stamp Design Contest with his painting, “Looking Back<\/a>.” The artwork portrayed a lone black bear sitting on the edge of a creek with the first hints of fall. This is his eighth win since first entering the contest in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fun for me and I enjoy helping out conservation programs whenever I am able,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the sale of\u00a0Black Bear Conservation Stamps<\/a>\u00a0and other related items<\/a>\u00a0are used to compensate Maryland farmers experiencing damage caused by black bears. These proceeds are added to the Black Bear Compensation Fund. The bear stamps and other related items can be purchased on the department\u2019s\u00a0online store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“Silent Repose” by Paul Bridgford<\/p><\/div>\n

Paul Bridgford, of Des Moines, Iowa, won the 44th Annual Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp Design Contest with his painting, “Silent Repose<\/a>,” a stunning image of two green-winged teal, a drake and a hen, quietly floating amongst the reeds.<\/p>\n

This is the first year that the Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp Design Contest was opened to artists from outside Maryland. Entries were received from artists in seven different states and was highly competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been hunting for around 35 years and entering waterfowl stamp design contests for 32 years,” Bridgford said. “I was happy to see Maryland open up their contest to nonresidents.”<\/p>\n

The artwork will be featured on the\u00a0stamp hunters purchase to hunt all migratory game birds in the state<\/a>\u00a0with the proceeds funding migratory game bird research and habitat enhancement on public lands. Since 1974, stamp sales have provided more than $8 million for migratory game bird projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annual Contest Brings Entries from Seven States The\u00a0Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u00a0announced that a Delaware resident won this year\u2019s Maryland Black Bear Conservation Stamp Design Contest, while the award for top Migratory Game Bird Stamp Design went to a resident of Des Moines, Iowa. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges March 17  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3172,13],"tags":[3275,3267,3531,3056,3121,4133,4046,4342,3266,4341,2945,3274],"class_list":["post-20803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-hunting","category-wildlife","tag-black-bear-compensation-fund","tag-black-bear-conservation-stamp","tag-black-bears","tag-blackwater-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-cambridge","tag-eagle-festival","tag-maryland-migratory-game-bird-stamp","tag-migrat","tag-migratory-game-bird-stamp","tag-paul-bridgford","tag-paul-peditto","tag-steve-oliver"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20803"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20872,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20803\/revisions\/20872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}