Women contribute to outdoors legacy

Rep. Mark Neuman of Big Lake is hosting a fundraiser/meet-and-greet around the corner from Steve’s Food Boy in the mall in Big Lake this evening from 5 to 8 p.m. or so. Stop by and say hi if you haven’t already met Mark, and even if you have. Mark has been a major defender and supporter in the legislature of our Northern District fish and game populations.

Tony Russ of Northern Publishing in Wasilla has several recordbook Dall sheep to his credit and is a recognized expert in both sheep and brown bear hunting. In addition to his publishing business, he also has authored books on both sheep and bear hunting, as well as the best single book on how to be prepared to hunt in Alaska that I have ever read. He recently asked me if I was interested in looking at a new book he is readying for publication.

The new book, Women Hunting Alaska, is written by Christine Cunningham and introduces the reader to seventeen different Alaskan women with a short biography of each accompanied by a hunting story that woman experienced.

I haven’t finished the entire draft yet, but, in the several stories I have read so far, I have been delighted, intrigued, sympathetic toward and able to personally relate to the hardships, emotions, triumphs, failures and determination each woman has expressed in her particular hunting experience. Cunningham has done a masterful job of translating each woman’s particular experience into words that let me experience the hunt as though I were there, if only in my mind’s eye.

In the prologue to Women Hunting Alaska, Cunningham states that she “attempt(s) to bring the reader into the world of the woman hunter in Alaska — the high risk and visually spectacular world of the Last Frontier through the eyes of hunting’s largest growing segment. The stories that follow are those of women hunters who live within and utilize the wild lands of Alaska. Their stories, although remarkably different, are a still vital remnant of the frontier lifestyle where women were extremely self reliant, independent and thoughtful. They are also full of adventure, compassion and life itself.”

What makes this book even more special for me is that I personally know two of the women — Samantha Oslund and Jehnifer Ehmann. We all have heard of Palmer’s own Olympic medalist Corey Cogdell, too. While I have never met Corey, I have followed her career as an Olympic shotgun shooter. I recognize several of the other ladies’ names as well.

I know Sam Oslund through Fish and Game, where she is employed as the assistant area management biologist for the Sport Fish Division in Palmer. Sam and I have made several fisheries-related presentations together to various groups over the years and I was always impressed with her knowledge and understanding of the topics she spoke to. She is a doer and much of her knowledge is derived from her “been there, done that” approach to life.

I sat in her office shortly after her return from her successful brown bear hunt, as related in the book, and listened as she described the hunt details and her experiences in harvesting the premier predator of the Alaskan wilderness. The story as Cunningham relates it in the book conveys the same emotions, triumphs, hardships and determination Sam spoke of in her office that day.

I know Jehnifer more as an angler than a hunter. We both are members of the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission and she also sits on the local fish and game advisory committee. She is an avid outdoorswoman who spends every available moment fishing, camping or hunting with her husband and family. She, like Sam, is more knowledgeable of local Fish and Game situations than most guys I have talked with. I suspect the other women in the book are just as accomplished as these two.

Tony told me the book should be available by mid-December. The official publication date is Jan. 1, 2013. If you would like to preorder a copy or learn more about the book, contact Tony at tony@tonyruss.com. The book will be priced at $19.95 and should be available at Carr’s, Fred Meyer and other retail outlets.

I plan to get a copy and start collecting the ladies’ autographs next to their stories. Sam and Jehnifer, you’d best start carrying a pen – I suspect you will be signing a lot of books!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.