Coloring squares of planar graphs with girth six

Wang and Lih conjectured that for every g ≥ 5, there exists a number M(g) such that the square of a planar graph G of girth at least g and maximum degree ∆ ≥ M(g) is (∆+1)-colorable. The conjecture is known to be true for g ≥ 7 but false for g ∈ {5, 6}. We show that the conjecture for g = 6 is off by just one, i.e., the square of a planar graph G of girth at least six and sufficiently large maximum degree is (∆ + 2)-colorable.