Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
December 2025
Shaped by Wildlife storytelling event
Alaskans build community & safer driving
At the Glenn Massay Theater in Palmer on October 29th, 2025, the Division of Wildlife Conservation hosted its first-ever community storytelling event. Shaped by Wildlife: Stories of encounters, harvests, and traditions featured community storytellers and artists from across the state—and even one Alaskan living in Arizona—who shared personal, true stories about experiences with wildlife that have impacted their lives.
Prior to the main event, the Gallery Hour featured art from local students, ADF&G’s Stories from the Road, live music, and information from partners from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the Musk Ox Farm, and the Alaska WildBird Rehabilitation Center.
In addition to bringing the community together to share stories, music, and art, Division of Wildlife Conservation organizers shared information and data to help reduce moose-vehicle collisions as the peak moose-vehicle collision season approaches.
In the Gallery
The Gallery Hour showcased the Student Art Gallery with work from Mat-Su students enrolled in grades six through
twelve. Student artists submitted work on three themes about living, driving, and recreating in moose country. Gallery organizer Kat Leavitt was thrilled with the submissions from students. “The student art submissions were fantastic! The creativity and insight these students brought to the themes were beyond what we would have imagined. Each piece told a story, some humorous, some thoughtful, and all deeply connected to life in moose country.”
ADF&G’s Stories from the Road lined the lobby’s eastern wall and displayed firsthand accounts and Alaska Trooper reports that illustrate an ever-present danger of living among large wildlife: moose-vehicle collisions. The stories reflect the reality of life in moose country, where moose can appear suddenly on roadways, often leading to serious and sometimes fatal accidents for animals, drivers, and their passengers.
ADF&G staff were joined by partners in the gallery hour: Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities shared road safety information. The Musk Ox Farm displayed the incredible adaptations of musk ox fur and its uses 
for human artists.
The Alaska WildBird Rehabilitation Center brought stunning ambassador bird, Rhett the Red-tailed Hawk, to the lobby to educate viewers about one of the many raptor species found in Alaska.
The main event
Following the gallery hour, the main event began: seven storytellers, artist Melissa Shaginoff, and musician Aspenyarrow took to the stage for a captivating ninety minutes.
Christopher Velez, born and raised in Anchorage and with roots in Old Harbor Kodiak, led off the storytelling with a raucous and humorous story of fortune on a brown bear hunt. Marian Guinnulis, a lifelong hunter and angler, told the tale of a goat hunt that went from hard to harder, and the lessons learned about her abilities in the mountains, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Palmer local Rachel Kenley Fry took the audience on a particularly harrowing late-night trip to a campground outhouse. Anchorage’s Lauren Cusimano brought listeners to Juneau with a story about growth, grief, and the awesome wildlife of Southeast Alaska.
Melissa Shaginoff, an interdisciplinary artist of Ahtna and Paiute descent, performed her piece, Moose Hide Love Poem with the assistance of friend Christy Newell. Melissa’s voice, over the rhythmic sound of Newell scraping raw moose hide, explored the relationship between the hide worker and the moose that had lived within the skin. The artist and the moose are in conversation with each other, and themes of reverence, persistence, and reciprocity flow through the piece.
Meezie Hermansen, a lifelong Cook Inlet Eastside setnetter and a small animal veterinarian living and working on the Kenai Peninsula, and Maria Walker, a social scientist and former wildlife biologist in the Brooks Range, told tales of two bear encounters and the combination of wheels and good fortune that allowed them to live to tell their stories. Finally, Keely O’Connell, a teacher living and working on the Yukon, closed out the storytelling with an introspective essay on life connected to the land, the animals, and to oneself as a hunter.
Musician Aspenyarrow performed in the gallery and opened and closed out the stage show. Led by Palmer singer-songwriter Kayti Heller and joined by David Krepel and Burke Doyle, Aspenyarrow filled the room with evocative soundscapes and storytelling of their own that invited the audience to reflect on their own experiences with Alaska’s people and wild places.
Manny Eichholz, Palmer-based ADF&G Wildlife Biologist and Assistant Regional Management Coordinator for central and southwest Alaska, was inspired to create the event by his experience with roadkill prevention education in the lower 48 and storytelling events elsewhere in Alaska. “A trip to McCarthy’s annual storytelling event inspired me to use an enjoyable community evening to spread awareness” of moose vehicle collisions in Alaska, Eichholz explained, by creating, “a community-based event to bring people together over their love for wildlife and storytelling.”
Per mile driven, Alaska has one of the highest rates of moose-vehicle collisions in the world. Alaskans can learn about where and when moose collisions happen in their areas by viewing the online moose-vehicle collision story map. The story map is an interactive tool that visualizes moose-vehicle collision data from Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and Fairbanks.
Drivers can reduce their risk of a moose-vehicle collision by keeping windows and windshields clean, slowing down and leaving space between vehicles, and most importantly, staying alert to moose on and around the road. Eichholz encourages drivers to “flash their hazard lights to warn other drivers when they see moose in or alongside the road!”
Organizers were thrilled with the community turnout (both human and animal—a cow moose and calf strolled the parking lot during the show!) and are immensely grateful to the storytellers who volunteered to share their experiences. “I loved seeing how well all the storytellers shared their fantastic stories on stage after all the work they put into preparing.” Eichholz said.
A full recording of the storytelling performances is available on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s YouTube channel, offering community members the opportunity to revisit the stories or experience the event for the first time.
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