AR Game and Fish Commission sets up online documentation

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has taken hunters’ documentation to the web this year.

Randy Zellers, assistant chief of communications for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, explained that procedures such as obtaining or renewing a license and tagging game have been moved online. He said that these changes are the largest ones that have been made to statewide hunting regulations.

“Overall, most of the regs are very similar to last year’s,” Zellers said. “We do have a few things that are different.”

Arguably the most prominent change to hunting regulations is in the hunters’ new ability to both pay for and show proof of a hunting license through electronic means. Zellers explained that checking one’s own license is something that should be done on an annual basis, and that the new format brings a convenience to the practice.

Zellers explained that hunters will now visit the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission website and either download a PDF copy of the licenses on their phone or print out a hard copy of the PDF.

Both the license itself and the payment for the license can now be found on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission website.

Zellers explained that with the new online format, the commission has also passed regulations that allow state game wardens to extract the digital copy from a hunter’s phone.

“You can keep the PDF version on your phone, you can show the wildlife officer that, and he’ll be able to look up your license codes to make sure everything is current,” Zellers said.

“If you lose your license or anything like that, you can print off as many as you want,” he said. “You can keep a copy in your glove compartment in your truck, you can keep a copy in your wallet, keep it wherever. You can also keep a digital copy on your phone.”

Along with online hunting licenses, the commission has also changed the way that hunters obtain tags for their game. Zellers said that the commission has set up methods of either checking game with a mobile device through the commission’s website, using tags provided on the hunter’s paper hunting license or writing down their name with the time, date and zone of harvest until the animal is checked.

“Before, you used to get a semi-waterproof paper that had a bunch of tags on it for your big game,” Zellers said. “One of the things that we wanted to do was get away from someone having to have that exact tag in their possession before they could hunt.”

Finally, Zellers said that the state of Arkansas asks anyone hunting on public land to a Wildlife Management Area permit this year.

“All it is is just an extra code on their license that says, ‘deer hunting on wildlife management areas,’” Zellers said. “We have that so that if we go back and we’re looking at management on that area, we can actually look and survey people on that area, that hunt that area.”

Changes in regulation aside, Zellers said that he expects Arkansas to have a healthy hunting season similar to those seen in years past. He said that 2016 was the sixth consecutive year to harvest over 200,000 deer in the state, and that 2017 is looking to keep that trend alive.

“Everything should be good,” he said. “If we get some cool weather in, the deer should start doing pretty well. Of course, small game is always good at the end of September, early October.”