Group Wants To Sell Elk License Plates

A private foundation that raises money for the Idaho Fish and Game Department to help non-game animals wants to start selling special elk wildlife plates.

Similar license plates, featuring bluebirds, have had good sales. Officials say 10,000 sets of the plates have been sold in the three years they have been offered, raising $100,000 for the wildlife nongame fund and $250,000 for the Department of Transportation.

The Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation spent $6,000 designing an elk plate. But officials say it will take a change in the law to allow the plate to be sold, and Gov. Phil Batt is against it.

“The governor doesn’t favor any new plates,” said press secretary Amy Kleiner. “He thinks there’s too many already.”

The foundation paid for design of a colorful elk plate, depicting a six-point bull elk on a mountainside on a backdrop of blue sky.

“We’ve had so many people call about it,” said foundation director Kit Freudenberg. “We think the elk plate would sell by the gazillions.”