Many motorists have wondered what the extra money goes for when purchasing a Georgia wildlife license plate.

Without that little bit of extra change, there would be no bog turtles in Georgia. Some people may not really care, but these turtles have lived in mountain bogs for centuries, and there may only be 500 of them left.

Bog turtles live in perhaps the most peaceful surroundings you could ever find. They are not easy to find, and since their habitats are rapidly disappearing, in future years, they may someday die out.

DNR biologist Thomas Floyd is doing everything he can to keep them alive. Early on Wednesday, he found a male bog turtle in the north Georgia mountains.

Floyd has attached radio transmitters to the shells of lots of bog turtles, and because the turtles’ eggs are often eaten by raccoons and opossums, the state is now harvesting them and hatching them.

There are anywhere from two to five in each clutch. The babies, like the adults, have a distinct yellow spot just behind their heads.

Bog turtles live for perhaps 20 years. You don't often see them, because most of the time they stay buried in bog muck and peat moss. In the last four years, the state has raised and released 17 bog turtles back into the wild, and in two years, will release 17 more.

It will be a long process to bring them back.

The restoration project combines the U.S. Forest Service, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Horticulturalist Carol Denhof of the Gardens is raising three kinds of endangered pitcher plants to put in the reconditioned bog turtle habitats.

The pitcher plants would also disappear without intervention.

By the way, the turtles don't eat those plants, they just seem to like them to be part of the landscape they chose to live in.