Duck Stamps and Bird Populations

Join Museum Director Robert McKernan for a special presentation on “Duck Stamps and Bird Populations,” at 2pm on Saturday, November 15 at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. This lecture is free with general admission.

The talk will focus on the relationship of Duck Stamps to wetlands conservation. Duck stamps are not postage stamps—they are revenue stamps sold annually to licensed waterfowl hunters. Proceeds from the sale of duck stamps are the single largest source of revenue for the purchase and conservation of wetlands in the United States. Many of the more than 540 national wildlife refuges have been paid for all or in part by Duck Stamp funds. Since 1934, Federal Duck Stamps have generated more than $700 million used to preserve more than 5.2 million acres of wetlands habitat in the United States.

 “For millennia, ducks, geese, and swans have migrated across North America’s landscapes in an annual ritual that evokes a sense of wonder at the forces, mysterious yet consistent, that send millions of birds the length of a continent and back again,” said McKernan. “Yet among conservationists, the mystery of migration is accompanied by certain knowledge that waterfowl are dependent upon a complex and increasingly vulnerable chain of habitats extending across international borders. Underlying the spectacle of migration is a challenge of unprecedented proportions, and the conservation of a migratory resource takes on a continental scale.” McKernan will talk more about wetland habitats and waterfowl in this special lecture.

Each year’s Duck Stamp design is chosen through a federal art competition. This year, Joshua Spies is the winner of the 2008 Federal Duck Stamp contest. Spies, from Watertown, South Dakota, won the contest with his acrylic painting of a long-tailed duck. Jim Hautman, of Plymouth, Minnesota, placed second with a painting of Canada geese, and Gerald Mobley of Claremore, Oklahoma, took third place with a painting of northern shovelers. The top entries from the 2008 contest will be on exhibit at the county museum from November 19 through November 25, the first showing of these paintings on the West Coast.

The San Bernardino County Museum is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays and holiday Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 (adult), $5 (student or senior), and $4 (child aged 5 to 12). Children under five and Museum Association members are admitted free. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org.

The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. If assistive listening devices or other auxiliary aids are needed in order to participate in museum exhibits or programs, requests should be made through Museum Visitor Services at least three business days prior to your visit. Visitor Services’ telephone number is 909-307-2669 ext. 229 or (TDD) 909-792-1462.