Nature on Your Plate by Fred Tetreault

Illinoisans now have a way to help in the maintenance and improvement of their state parks. They can purchase the state's new environmental license plates. They went on sale in late January at Secretary of State drivers' service facilities.

The plates are the same size as other passenger car license plates. They feature Illinois' state bird — the cardinal — in a patch of big bluestem grass — the official state grass — on a white background whose upper part shades into sky blue. Secretary of State personnel created the design in vivid colors with the cooperation and approval of the Department of Conservation.

House Bill 325, signed last summer by Governor Edgar, established the special tags and set limits on their use. In addition to cars, they may be affixed only to recreation trailers, RVs and trucks weighing 8,000 pounds or less.

Their cost is $88 the first year, $75 thereafter. Included in the first-year fee is the standard $48 charge for automobile licenses, plus $25 earmarked for the Conservation Department's park fund, and a one-time payment of $15 to defray processing, administration, preparation and other expenditures incurred by the Secretary of State.

For renewals, purchasers will pay only the $48 issuing fee, the $25 park fund contribution, plus $2 to be deposited in the state road fund. As with other state vehicle plates, the environmental variety may be renewed annually for as long as their holders desire.

These prices compare well with the state's charges for vanity and personalized plates. Vanity plates — all letters, such as a name — are $123 for initial issuance or $75 when they replace the standard variety. Personalized tags — initials and numbers, as in a birth or wedding date — can be purchased initially for the regular $48 fee, but applicants who exchange previously-issued plates for them must ante up an additional $11.

Vanity and personalized formats won't be available in the environmental plates, which allow only five digits. Every number series will be preceded by the letter E. In addition, numbers will be issued in the order of their purchase and may not be requested.

The primary aim of the venture is to increase state park funding. If sufficient sales can be generated, the resulting revenues could help the Department repair sites damaged by the 1993 floods, plus enhance current park maintenance, management, programs and services.

The project offers corollary benefits as well. Among them: free advertising of Illinois' natural resources on state roadways; exposure of the conservation message to countless motorists on roads and streets in Illinois and elsewhere; and the potential for boosting public awareness of natural resource and conservation issues.

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Illinois' new Environmental License plate features the state bird, a cardinal, and the state grass, big bluestem.

Additional assets might be the plates' value in educating viewers about the state's habitat and wildlife, and the testimony they provide for Illinoisans' support of conservation.

Sportsmen and other conservationists, outdoors recreationists and environmentalists are eyed as the program's main support base. Nonetheless, plate sales to other people interested in the state's natural resources also will be important to achieving program goals, Conservation officials point out.

Illinois becomes the seventh state to have a special issue environmentally oriented motor vehicle license plate program. The six predecessors' plates have proved popular and an ongoing income source.

Impetus for establishment of an environmental license plate apparently emanated simultaneously from two sources. Last February, the Conservation Department's landmark Conservation Congress recommended the issuance of a "Natural Resource Conservation License Plate" as a fund-raising mechanism to benefit state parks. At the same time, a group of legislators was preparing a State Vehicle Code amendment calling for creation of "a registration plate to be designated as an environmental plate."

House Bill 325 was the result. The geographic range of its sponsors — who represented almost every corner of the state — has been cited as an indication of the proposals' wide support. House sponsors include State Representatives Phil Novak, Kankakee; Larry Woolard, Marion; Joel Brunsvold, Rock Island; and two Chicagoans, Clem Balanoff and Judy Erwin. Senators Tom Dunn, Joliet, and Harry Woodyard, Chrisman, shepherded the Senate version through the upper chamber.

Fred Tetreault is a staff writer for the Illinois Department of Conservation. This article originally appeared in the February issue of Outdoor Illinois.

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