Young Mainers with an interest in the outdoors and some art ability can combine the two in a contest being run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The 14th annual statewide competition for the Federal Duck Stamp Design Contest is under way, and the USFWS invites students in grades kindergarten through 12 to create designs featuring ducks, swans or geese in their natural habitats.

Designs are judged in four age categories, with awards for first, second, and third places and honorable mentions. Entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2009.

The Maine Best of Show entry will compete with contest winners from other states in a national competition. The first place national winning design is used to create the Federal Junior Duck Stamp. Proceeds from the sale of Junior Duck Stamps (which cost $5 each) support conservation education by providing awards and scholarships for students, teachers, and schools.

The 2008 Best of Show for Maine was a pair of Hooded Mergansers by Brianna Dostie of Greene.

Modeled after the Service’s annual Federal Duck Stamp competition, the Junior Duck Stamp contest is part of an educational curriculum that teaches students about waterfowl, the importance of wetlands, and conservation in general. Proceeds from the sale of Federal Duck Stamps protect wetlands by adding them to the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Contest rules and entry forms are currently available for download at the following Web site: www.fws.gov/juniorduck/. Children who are home schooled are also eligible. A display of last year’s winning artwork is available to organizations who would like to promote the contest.

For more information on the contest and the display, call Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge at 236-6970 ext.11. Businesses or organizations who would like to sponsor this worthwhile program are also encouraged to contact the Service at this number.

Ski museum to host program

The Ski Museum of Maine will host a digital slide show titled “Down-Mountain and Cross-Country: 140 Years of Skiing in Maine,” on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in Farmington. The museum will open at 6 p.m.

Among the tidbits to be learned during the slideshow: A Mainer wrote America’s first book on skiing. A Maine company built the world’s tallest ski jump and the first chairlift in the East. Two Maine manufacturers were leading producers of skis in the mid-20th century. Two dozen Maine skiers have competed or coached at the Olympics. Maine has hosted five ski, snowboard and biathlon competitions at the World Championship and World Cup level.

Approximately 150 photos – some more than a century old – have been assembled from the Farmington-based museum’s collections and 35 other sources, including several of the state’s leading historical societies and skiing organizations.

The narrator will be Scott Andrews, a Portland-based ski journalist and museum director who assembled the photos and performed much of the research. Andrews has written on skiing in Maine and New England in newspapers and magazines for more than 20 years and is a contributor to Skiing Heritage, the official journal of the International Skiing History Association.

Photos to be presented cover the entire span of skiing in Maine, from the founding of Aroostook County’s Swedish Settlement in 1870 to present-day happenings all over the state. Locations that were historically important to the development of skiing include Aroostook County, Auburn, Bethel, Bridgton, Carrabassett Valley, Farmington, Fryeburg, Poland, Portland and Rumford. Competition subjects include ski jumping, cross-country, Alpine, freestyle and biathlon.

The museum is located at 109 Church Street.

For more information, call the Ski Museum of Maine at 491-5481.

To submit an item for publication in the Outdoor Notebook, send e-mail to jholyoke@bangordailynews.net, fax to 990-8092 or mail information to Outdoor Notebook, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329.