9535

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9535
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Fish & Wildlife News.
• USFW Year: 2003.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

IVew UUCk
Stamp Champ
Wildlife artist Scot Storm, from Sartell,
Minnesota, is the winner of this year's
Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. This is
his first win in 12 attempts since he started
entering the contest in 1990. He has also won
three state conservation stamp contests.
Storm's acrylic painting of a pair of redheads
bested 213 other entries and will grace the
2004-2005 Federal Duck Stamp, which goes
on sale July 1, 2004.
"It is hard to put in words
what a great honor this
is, to win the prestigious
Duck Stamp contest.... "
Scot Storm
"I choked and my hands started shaking,
that usually does not happen," said Storm
when asked how he felt when Interior
Secretary Gale Norton called him to
announce his victory. "It is hard to put in
words what a great honor this is, to win the
prestigious Duck Stamp contest. It has not
hit me yet that I am in the midst of all these
great artists that came before me."
Storm's painting depicts a male and female
redhead flying over a North Dakota pond
under a light pastel sky. Storm took a photo
a few years ago at Hay Bale Slough near
York, North Dakota. Storm's family has
been hunting at a duck camp there for years.
The background of his painting came directly
from this photograph. He made several
sketches of the duck positions and ran them
by his critic, his wife, Kristin.
"My wife's critical eyes really help out my
painting," said Storm. Second place in this
year's Federal Duck Stamp Contest went
to Jim Hautman of Chaska, Minnesota,
for an acrylic rendering of a redhead pair.
Hautman won the Federal Duck Stamp
Contest in 1989, 1994, and 1998.
Third place went to Sherrie Russell-Meline
of Mt. Shasta, California, for her acrylic
rendition of a Ross' goose.
Eligible species for this year's contest were
the redhead, Ross' goose, northern shoveler,
ruddy duck and brant.
The redhead is a medium-sized diving
duck resembling the canvasback, but
distinguishable by its darker gray plumage,
rounder head-shape, and yellow eye in the
drake. Redheads are the only members of
diving ducks to breed primarily in the
prairies and prairie parklands, and winter in
great concentrations from the Chesapeake
Bay southward throughout the Gulf coast of
the United States and Mexico, and in Idaho
and California in the west. Redheads feed in
a variety of water depths, consuming seeds
of marsh plants and shoalgrass.
Nicholas Throckmorton, Public Affairs,
Washington, DC
On the cover:
Scot Storm's 2004-2005 Federal Duck
Stamp design.
Science Advisory:
A Message from
USGS Director
Chip Groat
Welcome to the first edition of the FW
News Science Advisory. With your help
in identifying interesting and relevant
scientific matters, the Science Advisory
will be a regular feature in the FW News.
It will bring you news and developments in
natural resource science, emerging tools,
and perspectives from practitioners and
leaders. In this edition, USGS Director
Chip Groat provides his perspectives and
ambitions for the relationship between
his bureau and the Service. And in his
Director's Corner, Steve Williams highlights
a powerful example of scientific excellence
and his goal of strengthening Service science
through a Science Excellence Initiative.
I hope you enjoy the Science Advisory.
Please tell me how it can serve you
better in the future. <scienceadvisorty-
request@lists.. fws. gov>.
Dan Ashe, Science Advisor to the Director
I am very pleased that Steve Williams asked
me to address Service employees and to
share with you my thoughts on current
efforts by the USGS to provide science
needed by land and resource managers. I
would also like to take the opportunity to
discuss future directions of USGS science
and opportunities for collaboration with you.
USGS responsiveness to society's needs
for a better understanding of the earth,
its processes that support and create
environments for life, its biological
communities and other resources depends on
first class science. The people of the USGS
are committed to providing quality scientific
information and are always proud when our
work, such as the body of genetic information
assembled on Atlantic salmon referenced by
Steve in the Director's Corner, is used to
underpin critical resource decision-making.
A major challenge for the USGS is
maintaining its strong tradition for scientific
excellence while expanding our ability to
make results relevant and timely for
managers and decision makers at all levels.
The USGS is committed to doing this; but
success can only be achieved through a close
working relationship between USGS and
other DOI bureaus.