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Vanity with a purpose: These 11 Texas license plates aim to aid wildlife, habitat conservation

TPWD conservation plates cost $30 a year

Monarch Butterfly Conservation License Plate (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department))

For $30 a year, Texas motorists with a social conscience -- or simply a desire to decorate their vehicles with adorable critters -- can do away with the state’s plain black-and-white plates.

In its place, they can choose from a selection of colorful conservation plates touting everything from horned lizards, desert bighorn sheep, and largemouth bass to hummingbirds, bluebonnets, and monarch butterflies.

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The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department deposits $22 from each plate sale into one of several funds benefitting different wildlife and habitat conservation efforts. Since the department began selling conservation plates in 2000, it has raised more than $10 million.

Scroll below to view TPWD’s conservation license plates.

Funds from the bluebonnet and camping plates help preserve state parks.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

The monarch butterfly, hummingbird, horned lizard and rattlesnake license plates help fund efforts to conserve to wildlife diversity.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

The white-tailed deer and desert bighorn sheep license plates help fund wildlife management and research.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

The largemouth bass plate helps fund the state’s bass management and conservation efforts.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

Sales from the Texas river plate help fund several projects that protect and preserve Texas rivers and the fish and other wildlife dependent on them.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

Lastly, proceeds for this plate benefit the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department conservation license plates (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department)

To buy a conservation plate or for more information on TPWD’s conservation license plate program, visit www.conservationplate.org.

Additionally, the TPWD also sponsors nine nonprofit charity plates. The nonprofits support conservation-related initiatives and include include Big Bend National Park, the Coastal Conservation Association, Texas Ducks Unlimited, the Houston Audubon and Save Texas Ocelots.

MORE: See the hilarious, horrifying and downright distasteful vanity plates the Texas DMV rejected in 2021


About the Author
Briana Zamora-Nipper headshot

Briana Zamora-Nipper joined the KPRC 2 digital team in 2019. When she’s not hard at work in the KPRC 2 newsroom, you can find Bri drinking away her hard earned wages at JuiceLand, running around Hermann Park, listening to crime podcasts or ransacking the magazine stand at Barnes & Noble.

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