Federal subsistence permits and harvest reports move online in new Alaska portal

Rural Alaskans who hold federal subsistence permits have long filed applications and harvest reports by mail or by phone. Now they have another option: an online portal that lets them submit applications and harvest reports, check the status of a request, and see when reports are due, all in one system. The portal supplements those existing methods; it does not replace them.

Arctic IT Government Solutions, a Doyon Technology Group company, says it recently rebuilt the Office of Subsistence Management's Alaska Subsistence Permitting system on the Microsoft Power Platform, using a model-driven Power App and a Power Pages portal.

The replaced system, according to the company, "no longer aligned with modern federal security and usability requirements." The new one supports Zero Trust architecture and allows sign-in through Login.gov and PIV/SAML for Department of the Interior, USDA, and other partner users. On the staff side, field officers review and approve requests digitally. The application consolidates resident community records, contact information, hunting and fishing permits, regulatory years and events, harvest reports, and proposals into a single system of record.

This is not new work. The Office of Subsistence Management began modernizing the permit application in 2024, describing an online permitting option as part of that effort in its annual report material to the Federal Subsistence Board. The federal subsistence program dates to July 1, 1990, when the government began managing subsistence on federal lands; final regulations followed in 1992. Only rural Alaska residents qualify under those regulations.

The announcement comes from the vendor and describes the system's capabilities. It includes no comment from subsistence users about whether the portal works where they live, does not address connectivity in rural communities, and gives no rollout date. It frames the portal as another way in, not a replacement for paper and phone filing.