Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[Harp glissando]

Darcy Bontempo has a dream.

I’d like to see every single car have a plate that either has a deer, a bass, a bluebonnet, or a horned lizard on it. I think that would be just wonderful.

Bontempo is Marketing Director for Texas parks and Wildlife and a huge fan of the agency’s conservation license plates— introduced in 1999. You have probably seen the plates, but what you may not realize is the money from their sales funds conservation efforts statewide.

We’ve raised more than three million dollars in less than ten years, and I think that we’re going to continue to see that increase as people become more and more interested in helping.

Each image corresponds with the program or project they fund: bluebonnets/state parks, deer/big-game hunting, bass/fisheries research and stocking. Then there is the horned lizard plate.

The horned lizard plate was our first plate. And that plate funds a wide number of projects that benefit native wildlife here in Texas—such things as the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken, the horned lizard, of course, the freshwater turtles…as well as native grasses and other species of plants.

The plates cost $30 with $22 of that going directly to fund conservation projects, and this year they can even be purchased online at conservation—dash—plate—dot—org.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation License Plates Play Now | Play in Popup | Download