The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will launching the long-awaited Monarch Butterfly conservation license plate on Monday, June 21.
The sale of the plates will raise money to help conserve monarch butterflies and other native Texas, non-game, at-risk species.
“The monarch butterfly is a species that is beautiful and iconic in that it is one of nature’s great migration stories,” said John Davis, TPWD’s Wildlife Diversity Program Director. “This species migrates through Texas from Mexico in the spring making its way to the northern extremes of the U.S. and into Canada, then reverses that feat in the fall to overwinter in Mexico.”
The public was invited to vote for their favorite design for the new monarch butterfly license plate last September and the winning design is on the new plate. The design shows one large monarch butterfly and three smaller ones seemingly flying off the plate, as if starting their famous spring migration journey up north.
“This great migratory story is in jeopardy with the overwintering population experiencing steep declines in the last decade. By adding the monarch to our family of plates, we hope to increase support for this beautiful migration event and through our conservation efforts, brighten the future for this, and many other species,” Davis said
The TPWD Conservation License Plate Program has raised around $10 million in the last 21 years for wildlife and habitat conservation in Texas, according to program marketing lead, Janis Johnson. The 10 conservation plate designs include a horned lizard, largemouth bass, hummingbird, white-tailed deer, bluebonnet, desert bighorn sheep, and others.
All TPWD conservation specialty plates cost $30 a year, with $22 going to TPWD to support various programs and efforts. Plates can be purchased for vehicles, RVs/travel trailers, trailers and motorcycles.
