spectr17
07-05-2003, 03:41 PM
June 24, 2003
New licensing system is a major improvement
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
Got my first New Blue license the other day. Popped into the Northeast Regional Office of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Traded in my old conservation certificate, the one with all the stickers and stamps hanging off it, for a new combination small game hunting and fishing permit, the only one I possessed that still had any mileage left on it.
Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, I didn't run any risk of back strain from sitting sideways on my wallet. Ignore the cockamamie reports in another newspaper about how the new permits issued through DOW's Total Licensing System will put a huge bulge on your hip.
As the late, great Cab Calloway sang, it ain't necessarily so.
My New Blue, the end product of a method that provides DOW - and its customers - the convenience of computerization, consists of three panels made of a tough, thin paper that folds together tightly. It takes six such panels to equal the thickness of a standard plastic credit card. If I add, say, a turkey license that includes a carcass tag, that's another four panels, for a total of seven, which is as many as I'll ever need to group together at one time.
Every special hunting license that requires a carcass tag comes to four panels. Add-ons, such as waterfowl or extra-rod stamps get stuck onto the back, just like always.
"You can fold your licenses and put them in a carrying pouch, but you don't have to carry everything at once unless you want to," said Henrietta Turner, license services manager. "It's much more convenient."
Gone is the bulky conservation certificate, a lumpy and ill-conceived monstrosity that for the past decade had to be hauled alongside every other permit an outdoors person possessed. Basically, we're back to the time-honored method of a single license for each activity, only with computer footprints.
As of now, you can trade any old permit for one of the new ones, provided you do so at a DOW office. In addition, approximately 500 license agents across the state already are issuing the new licenses to original purchasers. Another 100 or so agents are being brought up to speed in the computer process and will be online soon. Everyone successful in bidding for a limited big-game license will get the new blue tag. Many already have been received and almost all, including pronghorn, are in the mail.
Over-the-counter licenses for bull elk will be available July 15, also in the new format. This means every license you buy from now on - or at least until someone comes up with a new scheme that's better, or worse as was the case with the dearly departed conservation certificate - will come clicking from a computer terminal, much like a receipt at a department store.
The initial login for someone not already in the system will require a bit of time. But once you're in, every subsequent license gets spit right out before your very eyes.
"Once we get most of our customers in the system with an identification number, things will be easier for everyone," Turner said. "People who lose licenses can get replacements immediately, no hassle."
A more specific benefit from TLS comes in providing DOW with readily available information about both license revenue and sportsman participation. DOW will receive revenue more quickly from license agents and also gain a rapid tally for the purpose of applying for the various federal grants that accrue to each state.
"Under the old system, we haven't even been able to close our books for 2002," Turner said. "Next year, we expect to file our reports in January."
Hunter participation, from which harvest figures are extrapolated, also can be perceived more quickly as a more precise resource management tool.
Big game hunters also may find an added benefit in obtaining leftover licenses for the coming season. Leftovers from the earlier limited license draw will be available for purchase Aug. 12, a process that often proved cumbersome as hunters tried to perceive what tags remained available and where they might be purchased.
"We hope to farm out whatever is left from the initial leftover sale to our independent license agents so the public can acquire these at many more locations besides DOW offices," Turner said.
In the main, the new TLS system is about convenience. And it won't put a lump in your wallet.
New licensing system is a major improvement
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
Got my first New Blue license the other day. Popped into the Northeast Regional Office of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Traded in my old conservation certificate, the one with all the stickers and stamps hanging off it, for a new combination small game hunting and fishing permit, the only one I possessed that still had any mileage left on it.
Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, I didn't run any risk of back strain from sitting sideways on my wallet. Ignore the cockamamie reports in another newspaper about how the new permits issued through DOW's Total Licensing System will put a huge bulge on your hip.
As the late, great Cab Calloway sang, it ain't necessarily so.
My New Blue, the end product of a method that provides DOW - and its customers - the convenience of computerization, consists of three panels made of a tough, thin paper that folds together tightly. It takes six such panels to equal the thickness of a standard plastic credit card. If I add, say, a turkey license that includes a carcass tag, that's another four panels, for a total of seven, which is as many as I'll ever need to group together at one time.
Every special hunting license that requires a carcass tag comes to four panels. Add-ons, such as waterfowl or extra-rod stamps get stuck onto the back, just like always.
"You can fold your licenses and put them in a carrying pouch, but you don't have to carry everything at once unless you want to," said Henrietta Turner, license services manager. "It's much more convenient."
Gone is the bulky conservation certificate, a lumpy and ill-conceived monstrosity that for the past decade had to be hauled alongside every other permit an outdoors person possessed. Basically, we're back to the time-honored method of a single license for each activity, only with computer footprints.
As of now, you can trade any old permit for one of the new ones, provided you do so at a DOW office. In addition, approximately 500 license agents across the state already are issuing the new licenses to original purchasers. Another 100 or so agents are being brought up to speed in the computer process and will be online soon. Everyone successful in bidding for a limited big-game license will get the new blue tag. Many already have been received and almost all, including pronghorn, are in the mail.
Over-the-counter licenses for bull elk will be available July 15, also in the new format. This means every license you buy from now on - or at least until someone comes up with a new scheme that's better, or worse as was the case with the dearly departed conservation certificate - will come clicking from a computer terminal, much like a receipt at a department store.
The initial login for someone not already in the system will require a bit of time. But once you're in, every subsequent license gets spit right out before your very eyes.
"Once we get most of our customers in the system with an identification number, things will be easier for everyone," Turner said. "People who lose licenses can get replacements immediately, no hassle."
A more specific benefit from TLS comes in providing DOW with readily available information about both license revenue and sportsman participation. DOW will receive revenue more quickly from license agents and also gain a rapid tally for the purpose of applying for the various federal grants that accrue to each state.
"Under the old system, we haven't even been able to close our books for 2002," Turner said. "Next year, we expect to file our reports in January."
Hunter participation, from which harvest figures are extrapolated, also can be perceived more quickly as a more precise resource management tool.
Big game hunters also may find an added benefit in obtaining leftover licenses for the coming season. Leftovers from the earlier limited license draw will be available for purchase Aug. 12, a process that often proved cumbersome as hunters tried to perceive what tags remained available and where they might be purchased.
"We hope to farm out whatever is left from the initial leftover sale to our independent license agents so the public can acquire these at many more locations besides DOW offices," Turner said.
In the main, the new TLS system is about convenience. And it won't put a lump in your wallet.