The Massachusetts State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is proud to announce a new license plate will soon be introduced in the Bay State. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the State Chapter, whose mission is to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience the story of the eastern wild turkey while working to secure the continued success of perhaps the greatest conservation success story in the history of our state.
Since 2019, the Massachusetts State Chapter has been working closely with the Registry of Motor Vehicles and the NWTF’s national organization to develop a “Massachusetts Wild Turkey” license plate. Without their help, patience, and dedication to our success, this project would never have gotten this far, and we thank them for all their help and support.
Our design, and the license plate itself, has been approved and is about to be seen and, hopefully, supported by sportsmen and women, conservationists, and others who simply love having wild turkeys in the Bay State. And with that, another phase of our project has begun, and we’re ready to get started. But first, let me explain more about the project, how the design was created, and how you can obtain one of these specialty plates for yourself or loved ones.
I’ll start at the beginning, when we were discussing the project and getting excited about the possibilities of doing some real good, but not knowing anything about the amount of work it would take to get there. Again, our discussions on this project began back in the winter of 2019, and we really had no idea how to even get started. But we had friends who’d worked on these plate projects before, and when we contacted them, they were happy to give us guidance, along with their contacts, which truly gave us the ability to begin.
Then the pandemic hit! But our board members continued to meet by phone and over Zoom, finally convincing ourselves that we should at least take the idea out for a spin and see where it landed. Soon after, we began reaching out to those individual contacts we received and suddenly, a larger plan began to develop, which eventually led us to the RMV, which is when everything started to make some sense. Before long, it was time to begin the process of creating a wild turkey design for the license plate. And here is when an RMV professional took us under her wing, and the graphic designers from our national organization really stepped up to help.
Additional meetings and more work followed with a few setbacks along the way, but by the spring of 2023, we finally had a plate design that everyone agreed on. That was then sent off to the RMV for approval, and a few months later an email arrived with word that our plate design had been approved. That now allows us to explain how you can obtain this specialty plate for yourself.
To get this specialty plate into production, our organization must first process 750 applications/orders into the RMV. Production will begin on the 750 plates when this order is completed and the plates are paid for. The initial cost of the license plate will be a $40 special plate fee, and the Mass. NWTF Chapter will retain $28 of this amount. A $20 swap fee will also be required when your plates are ready. You’ll be notified by the RMV when your plates are being shipped, but remember, no plates will be produced until we have 750 plates ordered and paid for, which may take a while. After that, it will take at least another six months for the plates to be produced and sent to you, so patience will become a virtue here, but we’ll keep folks updated periodically.
After you receive your new plates with instructions on what to do with your old plate, the plates will be renewed every two years, just like a passenger plate is now, but the cost will be $100 — $60 for the registration, plus the $40 specialty plate fee, which is tax deductible and comes directly back to the Mass. NWTF Chapter. And for organizations like ours, this project, and the potential funding it could bring, becomes essential for allowing us to further our mission to acquire and protect habitat and open space, while partnering with other organizations like ours who share the same missions and goals as we do.
In early 2024, you’ll be able order these license plates at sportsmen shows, chapter banquets, and other local and regional events statewide. More advertising will appear, and soon the plate will be available for purchase directly from the chapter website. Moreover, when our quota of 750 plates sold is reached, buyers can purchase them directly from the RMV website and other statewide RMV locations. But for now, you can reach out to either myself (jjontheridge@comcast.net), or State Chapter President Keith Fritze (centralmassnwtf@gmail.com) and we’ll be happy to take your application, or simply have a much broader discussion about the project.
Joe Judd is a lifelong hunter and sportsman. He is an outdoor writer, seminar speaker, member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, and a 2019 inductee into the N.E. Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Joe is also on the Quaker Boy Game Calls and Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s Pro-Staff. He can be reached at jjontheridge@comcast.net