Long gone are the days of toting around long tags and permits, at least for hunters in the state of Arkansas. In a release earlier this week, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission announced that all licenses and permits will now be available as a downloadable file. The new system gives hunters and anglers the choice of either keeping a digital copy on their mobile phone or printing one on standard printer paper.
To make licenses and permits more accessible to hunters and anglers, the commission believes the new program will streamline the process.
“The Commission passed a regulation allowing electronic copies of hunting and fishing licenses to be valid in December,” said Tony Davis, chief information officer for the AGFC. “And we’ve worked with our new license vendor to make it as easy as possible for license holders to do it.”
The system will deliver electronic copies via email as a PDF file that is easily saved to a phone or printed out. Davis also stated that tags for game animals such as deer and turkeys will also be included in the printout, but hinted at the possibility of new tagging requirements for the fall hunting seasons.
“We’ll have pretty much the same tagging system for this spring, but we are looking into the possibility of implementing new tagging requirements moving forward,” Davis said. “Proposed regulations for next hunting season, which are currently in the 30-day public comment period, may allow you to use the tags printed on the new license system or other methods, such as using tags found in the guidebook or even a blank sheet of paper. The goal is to allow hunters to hit the woods without the need to print out paper licenses and tags.”
The new licensing system is set to launch on April 1, 2017, and promises many other improvements for Arkansas hunters including email reminders, auto-renewal features and streamlined communications between the commission and the state’s hunters.
“We want hunters, anglers and other outdoors enthusiasts in Arkansas to have as much at their fingertips as possible when they visit our site,” Davis said.
