All winning artwork will be on display and an awards ceremony will recognize the winners before the crowd.  Each winning artist, attending the EXPO, will receive great prizes, art supplies, goodie bags, and fishing supplies from Rapala. During the annual event, national awards will be announced honoring the top three pieces of artwork in each grade category selected from the state and international winners.

An overall "Best of Show" winner will be announced to receive the new "Seth Thomas Spradlin Best of Show Award" given in honor of the 2008 winner who lost his life in an Alaska bush plane accident this past August.

Habitat Funding Boosts Ohio Fishing Opportunities

Wayne National Forest is once again a favorite destination among anglers because of a fisheries enhancement program funded by Wildlife Forever.

The project was designed to improve recreational fishing opportunities in the forest, and it's off to a flying start. Improving water quality was the first step. A group of dedicated volunteers cleaned trash from seven of the forest's fishing ponds. Then, grass carp were released into two of them to control excessive weed growth.

The fishing and access to several of the 130 fishable ponds and small lakes in the Wayne National Forest is much improved  thanks to support from Wildlife Forever members.

The Izaak Walton League of America, U.S. Forest Service, Wildlife Forever and concerned citizens joined forces on this project.

Artwork Raises Funds For Childrens' Conservation Education

All of the winning artwork from this year's winning entries (and going back to winners from 2008) is available for purchase by the public. You will find these exceptional images as prints, of course, but also as shirts, caps, mugs and even fish business cards.

Winning childrens' art like this walleye Iphone case
will make a great father's day gift. But there are also fish ties.

You can see all the options for each winning piece when you click the "See Artwork on Zazzle" link below each image on the 2011 winners page. Or window shop you way through thousands of choices at Wildlife Forever's Fundraising Store on Zazzle.

Minnesota's Grass Lake Basin Under The Plow No More

During the early 1900's a large wetland in west-central Minnesota was drained. Open ditches carried away the water from Grass Lake, which had an average depth of just 2 to 3 feet. Gone were 1,200 acres of wildlife habitat, plus a natural holding tank for the area's floodwater. In its place was farmland. But during the decades since the wetland was drained, many farmers have struggled with floods that damaged their crops and made it difficult to earn a living.

A multi-agency effort, lead by Wildlife Forever, has restored Grass Lake. In addition, 500 acres of upland habitat and seven islands within the basin were restored. The "new" wetland habitat, is expected to improve the area's water quality, especially in
the Waconia chain of lakes. The project's two key elements were the landowners who enrolled their land into permanent conservation programs and the conservation groups involved.

Canvass backs are among the many waterfowl benefiting
from the newly restored wetlands..

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes this was a tremendous opportunity  to fully restore Grass Lake," said Steve Erickson, the agency's acting wetland manager. Project partners for this $2.6 million project included: Wildlife Forever, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Minnesota Waterfowl Association, Board of Water and Soil Resources, Kandiyohi County and the City of Willmar.