2 Summer 2017 Applegater
OBITUARIES
Ed Reilly
Nadine Levie
October 13, 1955 - March 9, 2017
January 9, 1944 - March 28, 2017
Ed Reilly, a pillar of the Applegate
community, passed away suddenly, by heart
attack, on March 9. An avid outdoorsman,
Ed had just completed a hike with friends
on the Lower Loop Trail at Cantrall
Buckley Park. He was 61.
Ed grew up in Rumson, New Jersey.
When he was 17, he quit high school and
married his sweetheart, Jody. An uncle of
Ed’s, who lived in Mill Valley, California,
offered to rent his small cabin in the hills
to the young couple, so they packed the
car and nine-month-old Jessica and drove
cross-country to California. In their search
for rural property, they found their dream
location on Sterling Creek, where they
lived for 42 years.
In Oregon he took a job with the US
Forest Service (USFS) on a tree-planting
crew in the Applegate Ranger District.
Over the years, Ed assumed a series
of increasingly responsible positions
before transferring to the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM), where he played key
roles in a number of high-profile projects.
Ed was always interested in learning
new things and was an early adopter of
computer technology. He worked with
USFS and BLM for a total of 30 years,
retiring in 2012.
Ed embodied the community spirit
of the Applegate, helping friends and
neighbors without asking anything in
return. He used his geographic information
system skills to map the Applegate River
watershed—a benefit to a multitude
of local organizations, especially the
Applegate Partnership and Watershed
Council (APWC). In 2000 Ed caught
wind of a proposed “National Fire Plan”
project, immediately met with APWC,
and helped get a grant approved. The
result was the Applegate Fire Plan, the first
community wildfire plan in the nation.
This plan included a public education
piece on the hows and whys of reducing
fuel hazards. This fire plan was more than
a piece of paper—it became a way of life
in the Applegate. Ed was a big promoter
of landowner responsibility to ensure
healthy and fire-resistant tree stands on
private lands.
Exemplary land stewards, he and Jody
cared for 40 acres on Sterling Creek,
transforming their property from an
overgrown fire hazard to a diverse, wildlife-
friendly, and firesafe woodland. The
property is an intensively managed small
woodland farm that integrates forest health
with utilization of forest by-products.
Ed worked a pole-building Wood-Mizer
sawmill, which had been crafted from
material harvested from the property. With
timber he milled, Ed built a tree house,
pole barns, toys for his grandchildren, and
furniture for his home. He took trees from
neighbors’ properties and returned them as
milled lumber for free, because they were
neighbors.
Ed was very active in the Jackson/
Josephine Small Woodlands Association.
A true conservation leader, Ed played a
prominent role in developing regional
forest restoration strategies. In 2010, Ed
and Jody were honored as the Jackson
County Tree Farmers of the Year in
recognition of their long-term efforts in
forest stewardship.
Ed was a natural teacher and enjoyed
sharing his experiences with others. He
and Jody led many tours of their property
over the years, including countless classes
for Oregon State University-Southern
Oregon Research and Extension Center’s
land steward and forestry and natural
resource programs.
Using skills from his BLM days, Ed
recently completed an environmental
assessment so the Applegate Trails
Association could begin construction of
the East Applegate Ridge Trail above Ruch.
In 1984, Ed took the lead in establishing
the first Ruch Library in the building next
to Ramsay Realty. Ed focused on the
bookcase project and helped supervise,
build, and paint the shelves. The work
was done on-site outdoors using donated
plywood and volunteer labor. Ed’s young
children, Jessica and Jason, became early
library users, and we all benefited from his
community energy.
Ed was all about community. A few
years ago Ed organized neighbors to put
out a fire started by lightning. The Oregon
Department of Forestry was swamped with
other fires at that time; the fire was under
control quickly.
Ed was also a member of the Cantrall
Buckley Park Committee, where he
volunteered for a variety of projects.
When he died, Ed was preparing to take
on management of a large ecological
restoration project at the park. He was
looking forward to figuring out how
to improve the park’s natural drainage,
redesign much of the landscape, replace
the irrigation system, and modernize the
parking.
Adventurous and always learning, Ed
and Jody traveled widely from Asia to
Europe to South America. As a tree lover,
Ed couldn’t help but visit some of the
forests in these far-flung locales, and he
always brought back pictures and stories
of his new discoveries.
Ed leaves behind his wife, Jody; two
children: daughter Jessica (Ahcho) and son
Jason (Stephanie); and four grandchildren:
Colin, Minya, Madilyn, and Delaney.
He will be missed.
NOTE: Contributors to this article include
Neal Anderson, Max Bennett and board
members of the Jackson/Josephine Small
Woodlands Association, David Calahan,
Tom Carstens, Jack Duggan, Brett Fillis,
Pat Gordon, Katy Mallams, Jody Reilly, and
Sandy Shaffer.
I have known Ed and Jody Reilly since I
was about 15. We met at the Pennsylvania
House commune on East Side Road in the
Upper Applegate. We were all very young.
Many years later I started working with Ed
at the Applegate Ranger District. Ed could
do it all: National Environmental Policy
Act, GIS (geographic information system),
fire, woods work. We were both present for
the inception of the Applegate Partnership
and the Northwest Forest Plan.
In the 1990s, Ed and I were the only ones
on the forest deemed “essential” employees
our parallel experiences,
to the point where these
synchronicities became
commonplace, though
no less special. Whether
it was a discussion about
the over-aggressive mating
habits of male ducks, a
run-in with a bear, cougar,
or coyote, the challenges
of raising a child through
the teenage years, or an
exciting new diet, Nadine
had endless stories to
share, rich with her years
Kirsten Shockey, left, with mother, Nadine Levie. of experience, wisdom,
and compassionate
insight.
Though
I started seeing her for
For those of us who had the good
fortune of knowing Nadine Levie, as a acupuncture, over time I came just as
friend, healer, and neighbor, her passing much for the deep bond of friendship
brings such grief, tempered by many joyful with her, the respite from hectic daily lives,
and the opportunity to unwind mentally,
memories.
Stepping into Nadine’s acupuncture physically, and spiritually in the comfort
clinic, adjacent to the Applegate Post of a small room with this incredibly gifted,
Office, was like entering another world. intuitive healer, resembling a shaman more
Nadine’s boundless curiosity was evident than a doctor.
Nadine will be missed by all of us
in the many tomes that lined her shelves
and the diverse healing techniques that she who felt her healing touch, enjoyed her
employed on her patients—acupuncture, quirky, inquisitive, determined, and caring
holistic diet, cupping, tuning rods, Tong presence, and grew to behold her as a
Ren drumming, and sound healing among godmother of sorts, caring for us as though
them. It was a common occurrence to hear we were her extended family.
May she rest in peace, and may we be
her go on at length about a new approach
to or method of alternative medicine so fortunate to find ourselves so timelessly
that she had recently delved into, as she wise, so abundant in experience, and so
giving as to impact our community with
continued to learn and grow.
I remember sharing countless deep, as much grace, compassion, dedication,
meaningful conversations woven together and good humor as she did.
Ben Yohai
by her attunement to the seasonal cycle in
benyohai@gmail.com
our valley and its impact on us, its human
residents. She observed and shared these
patterns with us, her lucky patients and
Nadine is survived by daughters Kirsten
friends, helping us see that we were just
a small part of a larger web that holds us (Christopher) Shockey and Ursula (Ted)
Raymond; son Gernot (Aspasia) Bartels;
together.
So many times, before I lay down on grandchildren Jakob (Lydia) Shockey,
the treatment table, we would talk at length Kelton (Nicole) Shockey, Dmitri Shockey,
about life on the farm, or our relationships, Ariana Shockey, Tobias Bartels, and Lila
or some other pertinent topic that revealed Bartels; and two great-grandchildren.
during the Clinton furlough, and we
worked together on the first programmatic
consultation on spotted owls in Oregon. It
was a fun two weeks! Later Ed became a
part of the US Forest Service Terrestrial
Salamander Taxa Team, which included
myself and other experts in the region,
that developed the first conservation
strategy for the Siskiyou Mountains
salamander, our endemic salamander. He
was instrumental in GIS modeling for the
project. When he went to the BLM, I got
to work with him on different versions of
landscape analysis that again put him in
the thick of the Siskiyou ecology.
Ed was always a person of note—a key
player in analyzing the ecology and fire
history of the Siskiyous and southwestern
Oregon. He was a man of many talents,
and he has touched many with his life
and work. He was great man—one of my
mentors and my friend. My wife, Debra,
and I wish Jody, Jessica, Ahcho, and my
good friend and fellow biologist Jason all
of our love.
David Clayton • dclayton@fs.fed.us
What a treat, what an honor, to have
known Ed Reilly.
I revel in the added bonus of having
had the chance to work with Ed for several
years. Ed always approached our work
relationship as my cohort, but in reality,
he was my mentor. I learned so much
from Ed—likely more than I realize, more
than I ever thanked him for. I appreciated
that he always saw me as an equal. My
impression is that he viewed everyone that
way, recognizing that every person “at the
table” has something to offer.
Speaking of tables, our kitchen table
owes some serious thanks to Ed (and his
wife, Jody). Chris, my husband, and I grow
exceptional onions every year thanks to the
Reilly’s green thumbs. I think we are still
propagating a garlic strain from Sterling
Creek, and we just polished off some dried
Thai peppers from the Reilly garden. We
have incorporated other tried-and-true
tricks of the trade, shared by Ed, into the
garden; sometimes we reflect on our hard
work and success while sitting in chairs
that Chris built from an incense cedar,
harvested from our yard, that Ed milled up
for us, and the chair pattern was in a book
borrowed from Ed! If I remember correctly,
on that occasion we had the fortune of
enjoying some delicious bounty from the
Reilly kitchen table.
Anyone who knew Ed will surely agree
that he had a lot to offer at every table
he joined, gladly sharing his knowledge,
his perspective, soaking up what others
had to offer, and encouraging discourse
collaboratively—that word: Ed breathed
it, embodied it—collaboratively seeking
See ED REILLY, page 3
