The Wild Duck Chase

May 14, 2012
Smith, editor-in-chief of Orange Coast magazine, serves as the “fly on the wall” during the highly competitive 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest in his new book, tracing its origins and its current popularity. The contest, originating with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1934 wildlife preservation law in the Great Depression, provides for “the sale of an obscure revenue stamp” bought by hunters and stamp collectors, generating more than $750 million in funds, with 98 cents of each dollar going to buy millions of acres of U.S. waterfowl habitat since its inception. With a low-key writing style supported by fine research, Smith takes the readers behind the scenes as five judges weigh the artistic and commercial quality of the 235 submissions in the only juried contest administered by the U.S. government. The Hautman brothers, Jim, Joe, and Bob, are the most fascinating of the artistic competitors, but the author paints many of the participants in a lively, entertaining manner while the contest runs its hectic course. Smith’s compelling story of a largely forgotten federal program will cast some timely light on the ongoing clash between rural hunters and urban conservationists on preserving the habitat of waterfowl.

July 15, 2012
As Orange Coast editor in chief Smith (Straw Men, 2001, etc.) reports, the Federal Duck Stamp Program is one of the most successful government programs ever. In his side job as chief of what became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling made bird hunters the stewards of their wetlands by selling them annual duck stamps for the license to hunt. Darling drew the first in 1934. Since then, those prized little stickers have generated more than $750 million. Of each of those dollars, just 2 cents went for overhead; the rest was for wetland management. Eventually, duck-stamp painting became the sole juried art competition run by the American government, and it has been copied by many states and foreign jurisdictions. Smith covered the 2010 contest and its strict rules and earnest artists. The winning hand-painted entry is reduced to stamp size and must depict one of five selected birds. The waterfowl portraitist must understand avian anatomy and know every feather--some birds flap more than others to keep aloft, some are better just paddling around--and it takes three rounds to judge the winner. The stakes are high. Collectors seek to buy a duck print signed by the winner, and other fees add to the purse, which in the past was said to approach $1 million (less now). Despite the stakes, however, the media is apathetic about this successful federal program, and the pro-am contest isn't well known outside of the hunting and collecting world. Smith aims to fix that. An interesting bit of Americana well reported.

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