ANNAPOLIS – This year the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is offering a new, special edition hard card for fishing, hunting, and boating licenses that honors the state’s wildlife and outdoor history in honor of the United States’ 250th birthday. The new card is available for license holders to purchase on the MD Outdoors licensing website.
The artwork on the card features a landscape of marshes and fields filled with pheasants, flying geese, ducks, striped bass, blue crabs, a squirrel, and a rabbit. In the center is the outline of an oyster with an image of working watermen.
The image is a relic of Maryland’s past. It served as the frontispiece for the Maryland Conservationist magazine between 1924 and 1947. Maryland Conservationist was the official magazine of Maryland Conservation Department’s Game Division, a predecessor of today’s Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The image was provided to the magazine “Compliments of Field & Stream,” with no artist listed. It appeared in the Maryland Conservationist’s first edition, published in January of 1924. It appeared for the last time in the magazine in January of 1947.
To bring the design into the 21st century and to honor the country, DNR has added touches of red, white, and blue. The card also includes the Maryland 250 logo and tagline, “Maryland’s Story is America’s Story.” The special edition card will only be available through the end of the year and will not be sold again.
DNR introduced the new, $10 durable hard cards for hunting, fishing, and boating licenses last year as part of the agency’s transition to the easier-to-use MD Outdoors online license sales system. The cards provide an easy way for anglers, hunters, and boaters to carry their relevant license information in their wallets, tackle boxes, or on their vessels. Other designs available in the MD Outdoors store include hard cards featuring a blue crab, deer, waterfowl, and a meandering river lined with trees displaying fall colors.
