“Living
with Wildlife” at the Wildlife Commission’s State Fair
Exhibit
RALEIGH,
N.C. (Sept. 30, 2005) – Deer
devouring your daylilies? Raccoons rummaging through your rubbish?
Snakes slithering in your garden?
Wildlife in your
backyard can be a thrilling — or chilling — experience.
Get tips on living in harmony with urban wildlife at the N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission’s State Fair exhibit in October.
The “Living with Wildlife” exhibit
will offer visitors suggestions on how to coexist peacefully with the
many creatures that have adapted
well, perhaps too well, to the lawns, gardens and pools that have displaced
so many fields, forests and streams.
Stroll down the handicapped-accessible boardwalk to view wildlife scenes
familiar to many urban dwellers, including squirrels dining from a bird
feeder, Canada geese grazing on the golf course and coyotes stalking
livestock. Find out how to protect fisheries from unauthorized stockings.
Learn what makes a shoreline healthy for both animals and humans.
“As communities
grow and wildlife habitats shrink, learning to live with urban wildlife
and sharing habitats becomes even more critical,” said
Glenn Kimbrell, a Wildlife Commission fisheries technician who is overseeing
construction of the fair exhibit. “The Wildlife Commission hopes
that by highlighting this important topic at the N.C. State Fair, we
can get people thinking
and talking about better ways to resolve human-wildlife conflicts while
continuing to allow wild creatures to live in their own home areas.”
In keeping with this year’s theme, the wildlife button — a
free, traditional state fair keepsake — features the beaver,
a rodent whose ability to alter the landscape has made it both friend
and foe to humans.
Wildlife Commission
biologists, educators and administrative staff will answer questions,
provide literature
and staff the N.C. WILD Store where
visitors can purchase posters, subscribe to Wildlife in North Carolina magazine or buy the Wildlife Commission’s award-winning
calendar.
Wildlife officers
from the Enforcement
Division are staffing their free air rifle range
where visitors not only get opportunities to interact
with officers in person, but also learn more about firearms safety from
trained professionals. They also will staff the Sensory
Safari, a hands-on
exhibit of pelts, taxidermy specimens and animal bones.
More Information
The
state fair will open Oct. 14-23. Fairground gates will be open from
8 a.m. until midnight daily, but the Commission’s tent (see
fair map -- pdf), which is located downhill from the Holshouser Building,
will be open
to the
public 9 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.
The fairgrounds are
located at 1025 Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh. State fair staff can be
contacted at
(919) 821-7400. General information
can be obtained from the state fair Web site, www.ncstatefair.org.
| State
Fair Wildlife Buttons — Start
Your Collection Today! It
made its debut at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s
State Fair exhibit in 1981, and since then, the Wildlife in
North Carolina button has become a “must-have” collector’s
item for thousands of people who visit the exhibit each year.
The Wildlife Commission’s Division of Conservation Education
created the 1 ½-inch button as a give-away item to help
market the Commission’s magazine of the same name: Wildlife
in North Carolina.
The Eastern gray squirrel
graced the first button in 1981. During the past 24 years, a
variety of animals — from birds to reptiles
to mammals — have made an appearance on buttons adorning
the clothes of kids and adults alike.
“Adults mostly are the collectors and the kids just like
wearing them,” said Sherry Outlaw, a retired sales and marketing
coordinator with the Wildlife Commission.
Outlaw has the entire 24-button collection.
“School teachers will come by and ask for enough buttons
to give to their classrooms,” she said. “We make sure
we always have plenty of buttons to go around.”
Typically, the animal
depicted on the button complements the exhibit theme for that
year. For instance, in keeping with this year’s
exhibit theme, “Living With Wildlife,” the button features
the American beaver, a semi-aquatic rodent whose tree-felling and
large-scale flooding abilities can damage property but, at the
same time, create terrific habitat for other animals.
What makes
the Wildlife in North Carolina button so popular?
“The wildlife button is unique, featuring a different animal
each year,” Outlaw said. “Most everyone who visits
the Commission’s fair exhibit wants a button, and there’s
always people looking for a past year’s button to complete
their collection. Plus, they’re free.”
The buttons have become
so popular that many exhibit visitors stop by the Wildlife Commission’s
State Fair exhibit just to pick up the latest wildlife button.
And while there’s no known monetary value associated with
owning the entire button collection, some buttons have more appeal
than others. For instance, the 1996 button is a hot collectors’ item — and
almost impossible to find — not because it features the rascally
raccoon, but because the raccoon has no eyes.
Start your collection today! Be sure to pick up your 2005 Wildlife
in North Carolina button at the Wildlife Commission State Fair
exhibit from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Oct. 14-23.
Below is a
list of Wildlife in North Carolina buttons from 1981 to the present:
- 1981
Squirrel
- 1982 Heron
- 1983 Largemouth
Bass
- 1984 Peregrine
Falcon
- 1985 Pair
of Ducks
- 1986 Black
Bear
- 1987 Trout
- 1988 Deer
- 1989
Black Capped Chickadee
- 1990 Rabbit
- 1991 River
Otter
- 1992 Loggerhead
Sea Turtle
- 1993 Dove
- 1994 Wood
Duck
- 1995 Wild
Turkey
- 1996 Raccoon
- 1997 Owl
- 1998 Muskellunge
- 1999
Salamander (Neuse River Waterdog)
- 2000 Quail
- 2001 Indigo
Bunting
- 2002 Coral
Snake / Wildlife Resources Commission animal logo (second button)
- 2003
Box Turtle
- 2004 Striped
Bass
- 2005 American
Beaver
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