CONSERVATION LICENSE PLATES: Make conservation your driving passion. We'll tell you how, on Passport to Texas.
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Darcy Bontempo has a dream. 		 [Harp glissando]

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. :07

Bontempo is Marketing Director for TPW 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. :09

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; it's also one of the most popular plates in Texas. It's actually the number three plate as far as specialty plates. And that plate funds a wide number of projects that benefit native wildlife here in Texas -- such things as the Atwater's Prairie Chicken, the horned lizard, of course, the freshwater turtles ... as well as native grasses and other species of plants. :25

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.