License Plate To Recognize Timber’s Role

It won’t say “This car supported by timber dollars,” but state loggers hope to see more support of their industry through a special timber motor vehicle license plate.

If approved, the plate will be the 52nd special plate in Idaho, according to the state Transportation Department.

On top of its stock “Famous Potatoes” tag, the state has the Centennial plate, personal plates, a street rod plate, an amateur radio plate and the recently minted wildlife plate featuring a mountain bluebird, the state bird.

The timber plate “celebrates the Gem State’s natural resource heritage by commemorating the unique place timber holds in the cultural and economic history of Idaho,” according to a bill sponsored by Judi Danielson, R-Council.

The concept was launched by the Associated Logging Contractors and should interest “anybody that has an interest in reforestation, even if you don’t support the timber industry,” said the 640-member association’s H.W. “Skip” White.

Each plate would cost $35 to purchase and $25 to re-register, with $10 from each payment going to the Department of Lands to reforest areas ravaged by wildfire.

White said no slogan is planned for the plate, which would simply depict a tree. The artwork is pending, but trees under consideration are the white pine, some sort of fir or yellow pine.

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