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A guy doesn’t have to go outdoors to get outdoors anymore.
The popularity among some hunters and anglers of buying state hunting, fishing and park permits electronically is rocketing like a flushed pheasant.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission put away nearly all of its permit books when it switched to selling permits electronically in November 2009. Electronic permitting means customers may go to OutdoorNebraska.org to buy and print a permit at any time.
Iowa took a big technological leap today when it debuted its second generation of electronic license sales to improve convenience for hunters and anglers.
Iowa’s new license system uses web-based technology to show real time license quota information, monitors the licenses purchased and automatically adjusts to show which remaining licenses a customer may purchase. It also shows a customer record of previous purchases. The new license can fold down to the size of a credit card.
The new system is designed to cut down on customer wait time and allow the Iowa Natural Resources Department to communicate instantly with its 900 license vendors.
In Wyoming, across Nebraska’s western boundary, more than 74 percent of hunters used the online process to obtain hunting licenses in drawings completed earlier this summer. Thousands of hunters took advantage of the convenience of using their home computers to obtain licenses for elk, deer and antelope in July.
After a Wyoming license with a carcass coupon is purchased online, a receipt of the sale can be printed on the home computer. The actual license is mailed the next business day from the Cheyenne headquarters.
Hunters on tight schedules often opt for purchase of these licenses in person at automated license agents in Wyoming if there is a concern over mail time. As in other states, online Wyoming licenses for fishing, small game and birds are printed from the home computer.
Wyoming licenses and stamps are also available at more than 250 traditional license agencies across the state.
The electronic system has several benefits, said Greg Wagner, a Nebraska Game and Parks spokesman in Omaha. They include:
• Lost or damaged permits can be replaced at any time from anywhere.
• A single purchase of a state-issued conservation stamp ensures the stamp will be displayed on any other permits purchased the remainder of the calendar year.
• Multiple online purchases can be made for multiple individuals with a single transaction.
• Landowners need to enter legal descriptions only once and update only as needed.
Exceptions to Nebraska’s electronic permitting include annual and duplicate park permits. Adhesive-backed park permits are provided at the time of sale or mailed, if purchased online. Other limited exceptions include special permits that require review, such as fur buyer, taxidermist and commercial fishing.
Nebraska has been selling some deer and turkey permits electronically since 2001. Hunting and fishing permits, as well as habitat and aquatic habitat stamps, were sold electronically the following year.
Wagner said online permits are especially popular among non-residents.
“Hunters can arrive at a hotel in Broken Bow at midnight, find a computer and a printer, and it’s buy, print and boom, they’re ready to go.’’
Through the end of July, Nebraska Game and Parks sold 194,390 permits and fees through its website this year.
About 30 percent of the Nebraska permits sold this year have been through the Game and Parks website, said Don Lanning, who oversees the operation from the commission’s Lincoln headquarters. That percentage is expected to soar in October and November when the state’s 90,000 deer hunters buy their permits for the fall seasons.
The sources of Nebraska permit sales are about evenly distributed this year among the Game and Parks website, Game and Parks offices and permit agents scattered across the state. Nebraska has about 320 agents handling electronic permits this year. That’s about half the number who sold permits a year ago, before the state pulled the plug on permit books.
“Nebraska is a rural state where the outdoors is big business and we have been pioneers in embracing this technology,’’ Wagner said. “Virtually everything we have, you can go online to accomplish it.’’
Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
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