Entries are accepted until March 3, 2025
Entries in the Fifth Grade Arbor Day Poster Contest are judged by multiple staff and guests of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; in 2024, that included Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Maryland DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz. Photo by Anthony Burrows, Maryland DNR.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Forest Conservancy District Boards invite all Maryland fifth graders in private and public schools to participate in the annual Arbor Day Poster Contest.
The theme for 2025 is “Trees Are Terrific…and Forests Are Too!”
Students are encouraged to share their appreciation for Maryland’s forests and trees through original works of art. Poster size must be no smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches and no larger than 22 by 28 inches. They must be drawn in acrylic, crayon, ink, marker, paint pens, regular or colored pencil, tempera paint, or watercolor.
Posters will be judged on a county level and then submitted to the Maryland Urban and Community Forest Committee to compete at the statewide level. A select panel will then choose the top three winning posters that will receive tree plantings at the artists’ schools ─ first place will win 15 trees, second place will receive 10, and third place will receive five. Teachers will be notified by late March, and school plantings will be scheduled in spring. Additionally, the top three prize winners will receive a Smokey Bear gift pack.
All entries must be delivered to a local Maryland Forest Service office by noon on March 3, 2025. Details are available on the Maryland Forest Service’s Arbor Day Poster Contest webpage.