TPWD Expands Digital Licensing Program After Public Input

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will expand its digital licensing and tagging program to cover all recreational hunting, fishing and combination license types beginning Aug. 15.

The change follows public input gathered earlier this year and reflects the agency’s push toward modernization and customer convenience.

Launched in 2022 for certain license categories, the digital option enables hunters and anglers to purchase licenses online, carry them on a mobile device and tag harvests using the Texas Hunt & Fish mobile app.

The expansion, approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in March, extends the app’s harvest reporting and registration capabilities to all recreational license and tag types, including those for deer, wild turkey, oversized red drum and spotted seatrout.

The Outdoor Annual companion app, which can be used offline, provides location-based regulations, season dates, fishing spot information and license lookup capabilities.

TPWD Chief Information Officer Jamie McClanahan identified the agency’s digital licensing systems as a key candidate for future modernization efforts at an Industry Insider — Texas member-exclusive briefing in December 2024. The CIO previously requested funding for consolidating the licensing systems into a single solution.

The move will further streamline field compliance and improve harvest data collection by providing customers with a faster, paperless option for license management and the ability to complete on-site registration through the Texas Hunt & Fish app. Full details are available on TPWD’s website.