Don Balke (North Carolina, B. 1933) "The Wetlands" Signed lower left. Original Watercolor painting on Illustration Board.
Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.
This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood First Day of Issue Postal Card for the U.S. 15c America the Beautiful, The Wetlands, issue of March 17, 1989.
America's wetland swamp areas are a soggy-but-splendid, fertile-but-fragile cornucopia of plant and wildlife. One such area is Georgia's legendary Okefenokee Swamp Park. It is also among the largest and most primitive of the American wetlands. Covering over six hundred fifty square miles, it serves as the headwaters for the Suwanee and St. Mary's Rivers. Set aside in 1937 as a National Wildlife Refuge by President Franklin Roosevelt, Okefenokee is home to more than two hundred species of birds, fifty species of reptiles, forty species of mammals and thirty-two species of amphibians. The American alligator, the Florida panther and the bald eagle are among the endangered species that frequent the area. Referred to as America's greatest natural botanical garden, Okefenokee Swamp was cited in 1986 as a Wetland of International Importance, only the fourth area so designated in the United States. Okefenokee comes from a Native American word meaning "land of trembling earth. " Though the name alludes to the shaky swamp floor made of layers of centuries-old vegetation, it is also an apt description of the precarious state of the American wetlands. Up to four hundred fifty thousand acres are lost every year, mainly due to drainage for human use and urbanization.
Image Size: 14.75 x 13 in.
Overall Size: 20 x 21.75 in.
Unframed.
(B11905)
Condition
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