1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am writing as a Washington resident, an outdoor YouTuber, and a lifelong hunter, angler, and forager who spends a great deal of time in the backcountry. I want to express early support for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s transition to digital fish and wildlife licensing, scheduled to begin April 1st, 2026. This modernization has clear benefits in terms of convenience, administrative efficiency, and ease of access for many people. My intention here is not opposition to the digital system, but to raise concerns about several practical oversights that will directly impact compliance, safety, and enforceability if paper systems are discontinued. As you know, large portions of Washington’s fish and wildlife seasons take place in areas with no cellular service. This is true for salmon fishing in coastal drainages, high-alpine deer and elk seasons, and backcountry recreation throughout the Cascades and Olympics. While smartphones are convenient, they are also fragile, battery-dependent, and unreliable in cold, wet, or remote environments. A dead battery, a cracked screen, or a lack of service could prevent a law-abiding hunter or fisher from being able to present a license or complete mandatory reporting in the field. This becomes especially concerning when paired with legal requirements that mandate immediate documentation after harvest. • Under RCW 77.15.160 and related WAC provisions, hunters must notch their tag immediately upon a successful harvest. • Under RCW 77.12.047, the Department is required to maintain systems for field enforcement and compliance. • For salmon and steelhead, catch record cards are legally required and must be filled out at the time of retention, not after the fact. This means a digital-only catch card that cannot be accessed without cell service inherently conflicts with WDFW’s own field rules. A hunter or angler who cannot digitally “notch” a tag or “mark” a catch card in real time due to a phone dying or the absence of service would technically be in violation, despite doing everything possible to comply. That is an unintended enforcement trap. It places both the recreator and the officer in a difficult and avoidable situation. It also risks undermining biological data collection that the Department depends on for salmon management, harvest estimates, and wildlife population planning. Digital licensing is a great step forward, but Washington’s outdoor landscape is not uniformly connected, and many residents recreate far from urban centers. For these reasons, I urge the Legislature and WDFW to ensure that paper licenses, paper tags, and paper catch record cards remain available as a parallel system, even if digital licensing becomes the preferred or default option. Several states that have adopted digital systems (including Idaho, Montana, and Alaska) retained physical tagging options precisely because of these same field realities. A dual-system approach preserves modernization without sacrificing functionality in remote settings. This is not an argument against innovation. It is simply a request that the Department acknowledge the environmental and technological limitations inherent to Washington’s terrain and the legal obligations placed upon outdoor users. Maintaining both digital and paper options ensures accessibility, compliance, and fairness for all recreators, especially those who fish and hunt in the remote areas where these activities primarily occur. Thank you for your time and for your continued service to our state. I hope this concern is given thoughtful consideration as WDFW implements this transition. I am more than willing to provide field-based insight, user-experience perspective, or public comment if it would be helpful.