WDFW accelerates rollout of digital licensing and e‑tags after paper supply disruptions

WDFW accelerated a planned move to a mobile licensing platform and e‑tag fulfillment after a vendor paper shortage created an urgent supply problem. CIO Matthew Orum told commissioners the department renegotiated its vendor contract, saving roughly $300,000 per year and avoiding an imminent $1.2 million hardware renewal by shifting to a mobile‑first approach and cached enforcement functionality.

The new system provides three customer access paths: a licensing mobile app (Fish Washington), a web portal and dealer point‑of‑sale. Staff said 70% of dealers have signed the new contract and are selling licenses; WDFW has a field team helping smaller, single‑store dealers with onboarding. The department emphasized that the physical 8.5x11 license will remain available to buyers who want it, and that cached profiles and an 'enforcement view' are available offline for officers to verify privileges in low‑connectivity areas.

CIO Orum acknowledged user concerns (device battery life, multi‑user families, deletion/reinstallation of apps affecting cached data) and said the agency is working with platform providers and other states to mitigate risks. WDFW is publishing how‑to resources (videos and helpdesk support) and will monitor adoption—early adoption was about 28% e‑tag use at rollout, with other states reporting faster adoption in their first years. Staff requested time to report back with a progress update once dealer onboarding and initial bias checks for harvest reporting are advanced.

Next steps: continue dealer onboarding and public outreach, publish tutorials and tracking metrics, and coordinate with biometricians to assess how changes in harvest reporting methods affect stock assessment models.