Since 2006, my wife’s SUV and my pickup truck named “Jezebel” have sported license plates adorned with a ruby-throated hummingbird.
The plate is one of two — the other features an eagle in flight — “nongame wildlife tags” available to Georgia car owners. Purchasing the tags and renewing them annually supports the Nongame Wildlife Conservation Section of the Department of Natural Resources. The tags’ extra cost — tacked onto ad valorem taxes and other regular tag fees — helps fund the nongame section’s vital work.
Funds from the tags have helped the state preserve thousands of acres of green space — including 37,000 acres along the Altamaha River. In addition, the funds benefit projects such as songbird habitat conservation, bald eagle restoration, sea turtle nest protection, monitoring of right whales, longleaf/wiregrass habitat restoration, conservation of rare native plants such as pitcherplants, and conservation of Georgia’s state reptile, the gopher tortoise.
Two other wildlife tags support other programs: The bobwhite quail tag supports conservation efforts for that bird; the Trout Unlimited plate supports trout management programs.
But for the nongame wildlife section, funding from sales of the hummingbird and eagle tags is crucial. They make up more than half of all the section’s funding. Most of the rest comes from direct donations and fundraisers.
Most of Georgia’s thousands of native wildlife species are categorized as “nongame,” such as songbirds, frogs and turtles. “Game species,” such as black bear, deer, wild turkey, mourning dove and trout, can be legally hunted, trapped or fished.
Buying a wildlife tag will become easier this year. When it first came out, a hummingbird plate cost $25 for annual renewal; $22 went to the nongame program.
But in 2011, state legislators, saying the state needed more income to replace dwindling tax revenues, added a $35 annual fee to the wildlife tag — and only $10 would go to conservation. Wildlife tag sales plummeted.
The Georgia Wildlife Federation and others pressed lawmakers to reverse the decision.
So, this year, the legislators passed House Bill 881, which rolls back the cost of buying or renewing a wildlife plate to $25 and dedicates more than 75 percent of it to conservation programs. Gov. Nathan Deal has signed the bill, which becomes law on July 1.
IN THE SKY: The moon will be new on Tuesday, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Venus rises out of the east about 3 hours before sunrise. Mars rises out of the east just after sunset. Jupiter is high in the southwest at dusk and sets in the west before midnight. Saturn rises out of the east a few hours after sunset.
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