New Texas license plate will help conserve state's monarch butterfly population

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Soon you'll be able to drive around in style while helping to conserve the monarch butterfly population in Texas.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is launching a monarch butterfly conservation license plate Monday, June 21. Money raised from plate purchases will go to conservation efforts for the butterflies and other native Texas 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, in a press release.

TPWD said monarch butterflies migrate through Texas from Mexico in the spring on their way to the northern U.S. and into Canada. Then come back down south in the fall to spend winter in Mexico.

Davis said the species is in jeopardy, because the overwintering population is experiencing steep declines over 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 in a release.

The public got to vote on its favorite design for the monarch butterfly license plate last September, TPWD said. The design represents their migration up north.

TPWD's license plate program has raised about $10 million over the last two decades for wildlife and habitat conservation in Texas. Different plates feature bluebonnets, hummingbirds, white-tailed deer, horned lizards and more. They all cost $30 a year.

The plates will officially launch June 21, but you can sign up for an email alert to remind you. View all the plate designs from TPWD online here.