The Ross's geese, the featured species for the 2026 Louisiana Duck Stamp contest. Photo by Ryan Askren.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has announced the rules and timeframe for the 2026 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp (Louisiana Duck Stamp) competition.
“The featured species for the 2026 competition will be the Ross’s goose,’’ LDWF Waterfowl Program Manager Jason Olszak said. “This is the first time the Ross’s goose has been the focus of Louisiana’s duck stamp art competition, now in its 38th year.’’
The 2026 contest will be restricted to designs with Ross’s goose (geese) as the focal species. Artists are reminded of the requirement for associated habitat representative of Louisiana wetlands.
“The primary objective of this program is to provide revenue to create, enhance and maintain habitat for waterfowl and associated wetland wildlife,” Olszak said, “so a habitat component is required in each entry and is one of the five judging criteria.”
To enter, an artist must submit an original, unpublished work of art, along with a signed and notarized artist's agreement and a $50 entry fee. Entries should be addressed to:
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Attn: Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp Program
2000 Quail Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Entries will be accepted from Oct. 20-Oct. 28, 2025, with the contest to be held in the Joe L. Herring (Louisiana) Room at the LDWF Headquarters building, beginning at 10 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2025. The public is invited to attend.
To fill out the 2026 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition artist agreement and see the full list of rules, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/louisiana-duck-stamp.
Classified in the waterfowl subfamily Anserinae, the Ross’s goose is the smallest of the genus Anser, within which three other familiar North American goose species are found: the snow goose, greater white-fronted goose and the emperor goose.
The Ross’s goose is variably common and often overlooked in Louisiana due to its physical similarities to, and propensity to occur in mixed-species flocks, with the far more numerous lesser snow goose. These two species are collectively referred to, managed and harvested in aggregate as “light-geese” in the mid-continent.
Within Louisiana, Ross’s geese are mostly present in the agricultural landscapes of the gulf coast and lower Red and Mississippi River Alluvial Valleys from November to February. They winter, migrate and nest within large flocks of snow geese, beginning northward migration out of the south in February to destination breeding colonies in Canada’s central Arctic, Hudson Bay and Baffin Island.
The 2025 contest was restricted to designs featuring black-bellied whistling duck(s). John Nelson Harris, of Groveland, Florida won last year’s competition with a rendition of three black-bellies on a misty wetland. The Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp bearing that design will go on sale June 1, 2025. Stamps can be purchased from the LDWF website where hunting licenses are purchased: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/hunting-licenses-permits-tags or by sending a request form found at: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/assets/Licenses_and_Permits/Files/state_duck_stamp_request_form.pdf
The Louisiana Legislature authorized the Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp program in 1988. The program was created to generate revenue for conservation and enhancement of waterfowl populations and habitats in Louisiana. During the last 36 years, more than $17 million has been generated for wetland conservation with approximately $6 million spent on land acquisition. In addition, revenue has supported wetland development projects on Wildlife Management Areas and the Louisiana Waterfowl Project, a cooperative endeavor between LDWF, Ducks Unlimited, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide habitat for waterfowl and other wetland birds on private lands.
Judging for the art competition will be based on the following criteria:
- Accuracy of form, size, proportion, color and posture.
- Level and accuracy of detail in all aspects of the waterfowl.
- Appropriateness, accuracy and detail in depiction of the habitat.
- Attractiveness and creativity in composition, subject, background and lighting.
- Suitability for reproduction as stamps and prints.
A panel of judges with experience in waterfowl biology and/or artistic method will select the winning design. The competition is open to all artists 18 years of age and older. Employees of LDWF and members of their immediate families are ineligible.
For more information, contact Jason Olszak at 337-735-8687 or jolszak@wlf.la.gov.