Tree planter Joe Leivermann was rooted in Haines
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Joe Leivermann died Thursday, July 21 in an Anchorage hospital after suffering a heart attack on a Soldotna fishing trip where he caught three salmon, his sister Christine Leivermann said. He was 58.
Area forester Roy Josephson enjoyed working with the reforestation contractor in the Haines State Forest. "I liked him. I’m going to miss him, but statewide he’ll really be missed. He did a huge amount of plantings, hundreds of thousands of trees over the years," Josephson said.
Leivermann, who was tall and strong (tree planting and thinning is extremely hard work) and had what Josephson called, "a great big bushel basket full of red hair," was a talker and a deep thinker who went above and beyond what the forestry contracts called for. "He cared about the forest and was proud of his work," Josephson said. Leivermann voluntarily added experimental fertilizer packets to new seedlings, marked them accordingly so they could be monitored, and remained interested in their progress.
At one time Leivermann employed a number of tree planters across the state and owned Earth Reclaimers and later Frontier Forest. He spent the last few years planting trees for a friend’s company and helping out on a Fairbanks farm owned by Theo Delaca and Allison Wylde.
Wylde said he was like a brother to her, and called him, "creative, solitary, stubborn,"- and multi-talented. "Joe was a man of many lives. He had a farm of his own at one time. He worked with draft horses. He was a woodworker, he built dog sleds and all the cabinetry in our house." She said years of campfire evenings with a tree planting crew in the middle of nowhere honed his debating skills. "He could argue a point he didn’t believe in just for the sake of the argument. He played the devil’s advocate."
Joseph Thomas Leivermann was born in St. Paul, Minn., on May 4, 1953 the second of Thomas and Patricia (Milner) Leivermann’s 11 children. His father worked for 3M and his mother was a homemaker and a waitress. He graduated from Henry Sibley High School in St. Paul and earned a BA in 1981 from Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, where he studied philosophy, art, and literature.
"As he got older he was gravitating toward the philosophical aspects of life. He was extremely interested in writing," Christine Leivermann said. She hopes his short stories will be published. "He also spent a fair bit of time exploring the arts, especially pottery," she said.
Her brother came to Alaska after college and moved around a number of small towns and rural areas, including Salcha, but had kept his Haines address for about 20 years. He never married or had children but enjoyed his nieces and nephews and was like an uncle to his friend’s children. "Joe was a very warm, compassionate man with a wide circle of friends," she said.
Allison Wylde said Leivermann’s death was a shock, especially given his active lifestyle, but his health had been a concern of hers since he was a heavy smoker who planned to quit. "He had some opportunities to change some of his habits, but he didn’t," she said.
Tree planting friends and family members are burying some of Leivermann’s ashes with seedlings. There will be a celebration of his life in Fairbanks at the end of August. Contact the Delaca-Wylde family at feedbackfarm@gmail.com for details.
Joe Leivermann is survived by his mother, Patricia Leivermann, St. Paul; sisters, Christine Leivermann, San Francisco, CA; Kate Larkin, Madison, WI; Dianne VanderVeer, St. Paul; and Monica O’Brien, Denver, CO; brothers, Mark Leivermann, West Jordan, UT; Jay Leivermann, Fairbanks, AK; and John Leivermann, St Paul; multiple nieces, nephews, and his dogs. His father and brothers, Greg and Tim, preceded him in death.
Christine Leivermann said, "Joe was a man with strong and enduring interest in art, philosophy, nature and the environment. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to a local organization which furthers one or more of these interests."
