Alaska Prepares to Offer Grizzly License Plates

Alaska drivers will have the choice of a retro look when they obtain new license plates next spring.

The state is bringing back plates that feature red lettering on white plates and a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs.

It's a reconfigured version of an Alaska license plate last issued in 1976, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported (http://bit.ly/1xvFQ16).

Drivers can also choose the current style: yellow-gold plates with blue lettering that reflect colors of the Alaska flag.

The Alaska Legislature approved bringing back the bear plates last session in a bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Peggy Wilson. House Bill 293 passed unanimously in the final days of the session.

Department of Motor Vehicles director Amy Erickson had a sample of the new license plate in hand Monday. The makeover has added new colors.

The old grizzly plates had beige mountains and a brown bear. The new version features a darker bear, a silhouette of the Alaska Range, a gold sun between mountains and a blue sky.

"I like it," Erikson, noting that the final version may be tweaked.

"I also am not absolutely certain that I approve of the colors, because they didn't come out just like our artist rendered them, but they look very nice," she said.

The previous version was not without critics.

During the legislative session, an Anchorage resident emailed a picture of a standing woodchuck and urged that the designers to modify the bear image so there was less resemblance.

Erickson said there's no mistaking the image on the new license.

"It's still very much the bear," Erickson said. "And it looks more like a bear from a distance."