On October 1, 2009, in Monterey, California, the Postal Service issued the 44-cent Nature of America: Kelp Forest commemorative stamps in a pane of ten.
Designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland, the stamp features a kelp forest located off the central California coast. This is the 11th stamp pane in the Nature of America educational series focusing on the beauty and complexity of major plants and animal communities in the United States. To illustrate the biodiversity of a kelp forest, artist John D. Dawson of Hilo, Hawaii, depicted more than twenty-seven different species in his colorful acrylic painting.
Previous issuances in the Nature of America series include 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), and Great Lakes Dunes (2008).
Avery Dennison printed 25 million stamps in the gravure process. The stamps were issued in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of ten.
