From the Mouths of Babes

I COULD WRITE A MILLION WORDS ABOUT WHY WE should protect our rivers and wetlands and how it is the responsibility of each and every one of us, but none of my words would be as effective as how one Arizona first-grader put it: “Don’t make the water yuckie for Mr. Duckie.”

I’d like to nominate that simple, clear, heartfelt sentiment as the official slogan for Arizona’s Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program, because it says it all.

You probably didn’t even know Arizona has a Junior Duck Stamp Program – an art contest in which students convey their knowledge of wetland conservation – to say nothing of the dozens of types of ducks that either live here or migrate through. You probably didn’t know that schools throughout the state spend months studying water fowl and drawing pictures and learning about the needs of and dangers to our wetlands.

Don’t feel alone. I didn’t know any of that, either, until my friend Peter Ensenberger, chief photographer for Arizona Highways magazine, happened to mention last March he was going to Gila Bend to judge the Junior Duck Stamp competition.

I was right behind him.

Gila Bend isn’t, I’m sorry to say, one of the prettier towns in Arizona. It’s actually just a wide stretch along Highway 85 that most people remember only for the UFO-shaped Space Age Lodge and Restaurant that juts out from the main strip.

You have to slow down as you go through Gila Bend, so you might notice the “sculptures” – big, metal hunks in the shape of a rattlesnake and a green dinosaur – that greet you. If you’re quick, you’ll notice that Stout’s Hotel was once a grand building, although it’s pretty run down now and needs restoration.
You won’t end your 4- or 5-minute drive through town with memories of trees or plants or anything that would soften the look of this desert oasis.

But on March 29, this town’s junior high school held some of the prettiest things Arizona has produced in a long time – the artwork of 1,200 Arizona students, from kindergarten through high school, who competed in the statewide Junior Duck Stamp competition that is sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
I wish I could report that all of these drawings – from crayon-colored to airbrushed – came from schools in every Arizona community and all 15 counties. But, alas, they actually were all produced by about 25 schools whose art teachers – yes, some Arizona schools still have art teachers – are the backbone of getting their kids involved.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket,” says Margot Bissell of the Wildlife Service, who directs the program and is out pounding the bushes, as it were, to spread the word. She is having success, since this was the eighth year for Arizona’s contest, which started modestly with only 250 entries. She’s so in love with the program, as are all of the volunteers who showed up in Gila Bend to help, that she brags about every single addition: This year, Casa Grand High School entered the competition for the first time.

The most outstanding drawing is sent to the national competition, which carries a $5,000 prize. But as far as Bissell is concerned, every single entrant is a winner because every one has learned something important.
Many of the entries include a “conservation message” that is judged separately. Here is where Arizona has already made its mark. In 2005, Annie Pan of Gilbert won third place in the national message contest with her observation, “You and I will come and go, but Mother Nature is forever.”

If I were judging, I’d give a national award to our first grader’s “yuckie for Mr. Duckie” rhyme. The sentiment was the favorite of the volunteers helping that day, and it became my favorite, too. But it was only one of the messages worthy of note.

Here are some other great examples:
“Please don’t litter so I can show this duck to my grandchildren.”
(Patrick Harlan, 9, Scottsdale)
“P.E.A.C.E. on earth: Protect our Ecosystem And Conserve our Earth”
(Liana Jaber, 9, Scottsdale)
“Preserving wildlife preserves me.”
(Clara Sypherd, 8, Glendale)
“Be kind to your web-footed friend; without conservation, it might be the end.”
(Alex Hechendorf, 7, Scottsdale)
“If we destroy nature, then what are we to do when we want to go walking in the forest or have a picnic by the lake?”
(Olivia Raiff, 8, Scottsdale)
“Ducks and other animals should not have to suffer for what we have done – it’s not fair.”
(Sage Knapp, 11, Scottsdale)
“Mother nature is a beauty, not a garbage can.” (Justin Gohole, 11, Scottsdale)
“Nature and its beauty are all around us. All we have to do is stop once in a while and celebrate the beauty of life.”
(Glen Stuart, 14, Snowflake)

AND A 9-YEAR-OLD TUCSON BOY said he entered the contest because, “My bird died and I hope animals don’t wear out, and I hope all animals are okay, and if you have kids and animals die they won’t see them.” You can just feel his pain.

THE 13 VOLUNTEERS ALL WERE decked out in green T-shirts that sported an image of a white duck and the title, “Quack Quack Crew.” They’re all “snowbirds” from Ajo who devote some of their retirement time to helping out at Cabeza Prieta, the largest of Arizona’s eight national wildlife refuges. Elaine and Norman Pospishil, from outside Chicago, have been coming to Ajo for 11 years and say they just love it. Norman’s twin sister, Norma, is here, too, with her husband, Ed Young, who’s the chief judge and a noted wildlife carver.

Elaine was a waitress and office manager during her working years, while Norman was a telephone man. Ed and Norma are both retired teachers from Powell, Wyoming. They’re great cheerleaders for Ajo, which they will gently say is far prettier than Gila Bend. “We have an old school that’s being rehabilitated for artists, like Tubac,” Elaine brags. “We have all kinds of things going on in Ajo.”

Not the least of which is what’s happening at Cabeza Prieta, where all these folks spend considerable time. “We trim brush and pick up trash,” Norman notes. “We help with the annual community fundraiser, called the Sonoran Shindig, and we run the coyote-calling contest.” So, it’s pretty natural that these dedicated snowbirds would help with the Duck Stamp contest, since places like Cabeza Prieta will benefit from the pretty pictures Arizona children draw.

Across the nation, the National Wildlife Refuge System includes a network covering 100 million acres in more than 500 individual refuges. It is at these preserves that animals, wild fowl and plants are protected: “From cactus to caribou, butterflies to bison, salmon to song birds,” as they like to say.

President Teddy Roosevelt created the refuge system in 1903 – Pelican Island in Florida was the first – and it has since become “America’s greatest wildlife conservation legacy.”

It is here that endangered species live and find sanctuary, where migrating birds rest, where millions of visitors every year marvel at our wildlife.

Much of the funding to keep these preserves going, and to buy new land, comes because both kids and adults draw beautiful pictures of ducks.

For adults, the program is officially called the Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, but everyone knows them as Federal Duck Stamps. This is a very big deal in nature art. These stamps are sold for $15 each and are demanded for every wildlife hunter. Since the program was inaugurated in 1934, the sale of duck stamps has generated more than $670 million, which was used to help purchase or lease more than 5.2 million acres of waterfowl habitat.

In 1989, the Fish and Wildlife Service expanded the program to children, calling it the Conservation Through the Arts program, or the Junior Duck Stamp competition. The national winning drawing is sold for $5 per stamp, with proceeds supporting conservation education and providing scholarships. And while these stamps are purely ornamental, their purpose certainly isn’t. As the Wildlife Service notes, “This is a dynamic art and science program designed to teach wetlands habitat and waterfowl conservation…. This non-traditional pairing of subjects brings new interest to both the sciences and the arts. It crosses cultural, ethnic, social and geographic boundaries to teach greater awareness of our nation’s
natural resources.”

MANY GATHERED ON A LOVELY pre-summer Saturday at the Phoenix Zoo to learn whose drawings had won prizes in this year’s competition. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lots of other folks turned out to hear Ensenberger announce the winners. The top winners in each of the four age categories received a T-shirt with their winning drawing.

One of the happiest people in attendance was Gay Ellen Kohl, an art teacher in the Paradise Valley School District. Her elementary students dominated the lower age group winners, and she couldn’t have been more proud. “It doesn’t matter if they won first place or an honorable mention – they’re all winners to me,” she said.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful this program is,” she added, noting that Bissell has had to personally raise money to keep the program going, although there’s now some corporate support that should help out a lot. (Some corporations that are stepping up to the plate are the U.S. Post Office, the Phoenix Zoo, Pro Bass Shops, Cabella’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Summit Hut.)

“This is one project the kids can’t wait to do,” Kohl notes. “It’s a family affair for these kids – their older brothers or sisters were winners. You’d think they’d get tired of it, but they don’t.”

If she had her way, she’d be a “traveling Duck Stamp teacher” to schools throughout Arizona, many of which have no art teacher. “When you’re doing art, you’re the smartest person there is – both sides of your brain are being used and you’re using a higher level of learning skills.”

“I wish every child in Arizona had the opportunity to enter this contest,” she adds. “It opens up their eyes.”

That’s exactly what Arizona’s top winner said in his acceptance speech. Imran Shafi, a 19-year-old home-schooled student from Paradise Valley drew a stunning rendition of a Cinnamon Teal duck using colored pencil on black paper. “I have entered many art contests over the past years, but none have challenged me and opened my horizons as this one has,” he said.

Imran hopes to pursue a degree in fine arts and already is using his artwork to raise donations for abused children in the Valley.

The top winner in the “conservation message” portion of this year’s contest went to Suzanne Sanchez from Mesa’s Westwood High School. The 18-year-old wrote, “No longer will there be beauty in our eyes, but tears, if we do not conserve what we have today.”

As she told me, “I had no idea ducks were such a conservation issue – this contest opened up my eyes to what’s going on.”

Or, you could put it another way. You could simply say, “Don’t make the water yuckie for Mr. Duckie.”