Cheap paper not worthy of printed licenses

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s new hunting and fishing license is the goofiest excuse for a legal document I’ve seen.

Until this year, the Game and Fish Commission’s licenses were weather resistant, coated printouts that contained our various license codes and game transportation tags. They were very plain and visually unappealing compared to other states’ hunting and fishing licenses, but they folded nicely into a compact little packet that fit easily into a billfold.

Of course, perspiration would eventually cause the pages to stick together, making it impossible to unfold a license without destroying your state and federal duck stamps and game tags, but generally it was a serviceable document.

This year, the Game and Fish Commission did away with the old-style licenses. Now, your licenses and tags are printed on plain sheets of printer paper. The tags are so small that you need to reprint them at a larger size on a copier to make them legible.

Yes, you can legally reproduce the game transportation tags. You can also reprint your license multiple times, which you will most certainly have to do because the document will be reduced to a spitwad after a few hours in a sweaty wallet or back pocket.

On the other hand, you can store and display a digital copy of your license on a smartphone. That’s a nice convenience if you are checked afield, unless, of course, your cold fingers fumble your phone into the water at Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area or on some lake or river.

Hunters who don’t have smartphones must possess that ridiculous sheet of copier paper that will doubtlessly be illegible in rainy weather or in a sweaty wallet during an early October bowhunt.

If it’s illegible, a hunter or angler can’t prove he’s in compliance, which might lead to a ticket. Think that might cause the Game and Fish Commission some problems in court?

It’s embarrassing, but it’s also unprofessional, especially for an agency that prides itself on professionalism.

Let’s hope this is merely a bout of temporary tackiness, and that the Game and Fish Commission will conjure up a better, more intuitive document next year.

We kind of like the credit card-style license issued by the Florida Fish and Game Commission. It is weatherproof and waterproof, and it shows all your licenses and permits and expiration dates.

We’re not sure how to include game transportation tags into that format, but that shouldn’t be hard to resolve. The Game and Fish Commission issues every hunter and angler a permanent customer identification number. Hunters could create permanent metal tags that display their name, address, phone number and customer ID. When you kill a deer or turkey, you could affix a small strip of colored tape to the back on which you could write the type of game, time, date and zone of kill and game check number.

That constitutes a legal tag for my Oklahoma resident lifetime hunting and fishing license. I had them made at a dog tag machine at WalMart for, I think, $2.50 apiece. Since they’re metal, they are reusable, which makes them eco-friendly. I’ve been using mine since 1998.

Anything would be an improvement over the goofy copier paper license I bought Thursday.

DOVE HUNTING OPPORTUNITY

If you’re looking for a safe, high-quality dove hunt in September, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will hold a series of controlled dove hunts on a leased private property in Lonoke County.

The AGFC traditionally provides dove hunting opportunities on several wildlife management areas. These are typically sunflower fields that receive intense hunting pressure during the first two days of the season. Doves often abandon the public fields for a while after opening weekend, but they return later when the pressure subsides.

The controlled hunts will host a limited number of hunters who will be selected by a random, computerized drawing. The result should be a better quality hunting experience on a prime agricultural field.

The hunts will be held Saturdays and Sundays throughout September. The fields will not be hunted during the week, which should encourage doves to return and settle into normal feeding patterns in time for the next weekend’s hunt.

To apply for a permit, visit agfc.com. Click the hunting menu, and then click the Migratory Birds sub-menu, and then click the Mourning, White-Winged and Eurasian Collared Dove sub-menu to reach the permit application page.