New Stamps -- Nature of America series

Today, the U.S. Postal Service is scheduled to release the latest stamps in the Nature of America series. At the Hawaii National Park in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Rain Forest souvenir sheet of 10 44–cent commemorative stamps. Also released today are the matching stamped postal cards ($8.95). Both were designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland.

Featuring a Hawaiian rain forest, the 2010 Nature of America issuance is the 12th stamp pane in an educational series focusing on the beauty and complexity of major plant and animal communities in the United States.

The setting for the colorful acrylic painting on the stamp pane is a rain forest on Hawaii’s largest island, which is also named Hawaii. Artist John Dawson, Hilo, Hawaii, painted the scene and each of the previous ones in the Nature of America series:

• Sonoran Desert (1999),
• Pacific Coast Rain Forest (2000),
• Great Plains Prairie (2001),
• Longleaf Pine Forest (2002),
• Arctic Tundra (2003),
• Pacific Coral Reef (2004),
• Northeast Deciduous Forest (2005),
• Southern Florida Wetlands (2006),
• Alpine Tundra (2007),
• Great Lakes Dunes (2008)
• and Kelp Forest(2009).

Twenty–four different species were depicted and the scene itself is completely imaginary. Even so, every species depicted could be encountered in a Hawaiian rain forest, and all of the species and their interactions are appropriate and were recommended by scientists.
 

You can also order the Hawaiian Rainforest  Ceremony Program ($6.95);  the canceled full pane of the stamps ($6.90); the first day cover full pane ($6.90); the first day cover keepsake that includes a souvenir sheet of 10 44–cent commemorative stamps, including a First Day Cover plus a full un-cancelled souvenir sheet ($11.95); and, an uncut press sheet that includes 8 sheets of the stamps ($35.20).

For more information, visit the U.S. Postal Service's website at www.usps.com.