Bishop, California
October 5, 2006 —
The Sierra Nevada Conservancy Board of Directors, at their regularly scheduled board meeting held in the eastern region of the new Conservancy, unanimously adopted a motion asking their Executive Officer to look into pursuing a specialty license plate to benefit their new Conservancy. The Board took this action after Governor Schwarzenegger signed the AB 84 in late September 2006, clearing the way for the new specialty license plate program.
AB 84, co-authored by Assemblymembers Leslie and Laird and sponsored by The Sierra Fund, establishes a new specialty license plate program inside of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Specialty license plates, like the “whale tail” plate and the Tahoe plate, have become important revenue sources for conservation efforts by the California Coastal Conservancy and the Tahoe Conservancy. However, a court decision in 2004 had shut down the state's specialty license plate program, pending legislative actions to resolve constitutional speech issues. AB 84 resolved this problem by restricting future specialty license plates to only state agencies.
AB 84 becomes law on
Official license plate registration will likely not begin until late next spring.
In the meantime, you can pre-register for a plate at www.sierralicenseplate.org