A new hunting and fishing license this year comes with a question: Print or digital? | Michael Wright

When renewing my Washington hunting and fishing licenses last week, I was forced to confront the question of digital or print.

I went with print.

For one more year, my licenses will be on paper, folded up and stuffed in a plastic orange holder that fits poorly in my wallet.

Last year’s licenses expire on Tuesday, which means every hunter and angler in Washington will have to decide between a printed license and a digital one through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s MyWDFW app, which allows people to store and display their licenses and tags from their phone.

Paper remains an option – and will for the foreseeable future – but people have to choose one or the other and stick with it for the next 365 days.

I chose print because of my (probably misplaced) nostalgia for a terrible and increasingly obsolete product: the weird, rubbery, receipt-sized paper that licenses have been printed on for years.

WDFW announced a couple weeks ago that the paper would go away this summer because it’s expensive to buy as a result of many other states shifting away from it. They’ve been dumping it for good reason. The ink frequently fades and disappears. I’ve also heard talk of printer jams, paper shortages and other headaches for the people tasked with printing licenses each year.

It’s a bad product. I’m happy to see it go. Still, as soon as WDFW announced it was going away for good, I knew I wanted to use it one last time. When it expires, my license will be a nice souvenir.

All that is to say I didn’t pick print because of any opposition to the digital age.

I welcome it. You should, too.

No one is forcing anybody to switch to a mobile fishing or hunting license. If you don’t have a smartphone, you don’t have to buy one to go fishing. Print is going to be an option for the foreseeable future, albeit on standard printer paper after July 8. Mobile licensing is an option, not a requirement.

But it’s a good option, and one Washington should have started offering years ago.

Idaho, Oregon and Montana have long offered digital licenses, along with many other states. Meanwhile, Washington kept its customers confined to defective paper. People have been able to buy Washington licenses online, but then they had to wait for them to come in the mail. A temporary PDF was provided, but it expired after a certain amount of time and wasn’t technically valid unless it was printed out.

Now, getting a license or tag will be convenient and all but immediate. Keeping track of all your permits will also be easier. Instead of shuffling through multiple pieces of paper, it would all live on your phone.

The agency has also been crowing about the app’s potential for helping it collect harvest data from hunters and anglers. No more going to a website to file mandatory reports. Now, they can just open the app.

Still, there are a lot of people who are skeptical about the change.

Some concerns are easy to bat down, like the question of whether the app will work without cell service. WDFW has said it’s supposed to work offline, and I don’t see any reason to think that it won’t. That function appears to be working fine in other states, and WDFW’s app is similar to ones in use all over the country.

Another common fear is that a dead phone could result in a ticket when a game warden asks to see your license. It’s a legitimate question, at least after you set aside all the reasons the phone should and probably will be charged – maps, emergency phone calls, grip-and-grin photos.

The answer is that a game warden isn’t likely to cite you for an honest case of battery life neglect, according to Capt. Alan Myers, head of WDFW Police in eastern Washington.

Myers said there’s always been a simple solution when someone can’t show their license for one reason or another: Wardens can run a person’s information through the computer system in their truck and see if they have the correct license.

Myers said not being able to show a license is a violation, but not a common one.

“It’s rarely written as long as the person’s been truthful and they’re not a repeat offender,” Myers said.

There are bound to be bugs and minor problems with the app. Phones aren’t perfect. Myers said game wardens understand there will be growing pains, and that they won’t be out looking to capitalize on technical problems to rack up high ticket numbers.

“We’re going to exercise extreme leniency until people are much more comfortable and up to speed with it,” Myers said.

If that’s not enough for peace of mind, consider this: Myers himself opted for digital tags and licenses this year. He’ll experience whatever problems the app has firsthand.

And if that’s still not enough, just stick with paper.

This will almost certainly be the last time I buy a paper license. I’ve already switched to digital for my Montana and Idaho licenses. Last year, I even bought an electronic version of the federal duck stamp.

I planned to use the mobile app until I realized this was my last chance to buy a license on that weird, horrible waterproof paper.

If the ink fades in a few months, though, I’ll regret it.