HONOLULU (KHON2) — Whether you’re a visitor or returning kamaaina, anyone flying to the islands is supposed to fill out an agricultural declaration form. It can be a hassle, especially if you don’t have a pen. However, we’ve learned those forms could soon be going digital.

The plant and animal declaration form is filled out before entering Hawaii to help prevent nonnative species from reaching the islands.

Sen. Glenn Wakai said switching over to digital should save the state money and make sure everyone completes the questionnaire.

“In this day and age, everything should be moving to an app. So, I’ve engaged on the local vendor, who has reached out to both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines for a pilot project. We’re hoping that by summer of this year, we will finally move off of paper and move to a digital form,” said Wakai.

The new digital form would be filled out when a passenger checks in for their flight.

Dr. Helmuth Rogg, Hawaii Department of Agriculture administrator of Plant Industry Division, said “the point is, this is more of an educational system. Okay. Why am I filling this out? What’s that whole thing about? And, maybe some people will really think about this. Okay, I’m not bringing that to Hawaii, you know.”

On the back side of the form is a survey from the Hawaii Tourism Authority. HTA officials said they’re still working on how they will implement filling it out digitally and using lessons learned from the safe travels form.

Ilihia Gionson, Hawaii Tourism Authority public affairs officer, said “thinking long term, this could be an important cornerstone of the future digital infrastructure that we hope to build for destination management and for visitor education. Think about things like park and trail reservations, public safety alerts, agricultural declarations, you know, visitors’ research on all of that will be united into one platform.”

Alaska Air said they have had discussions with the state and agreed to work on a pilot program, when ready.