By Tom Poland
Chuck and Rose Lane Leavell live among pines and hardwoods they call Charlane Woodlands, “Char” from Charles and “lane” from Rose Lane. Charlane Woodlands sits squarely in the geographic heart of Georgia.
You’ve heard Chuck’s piano and keyboard magic on the works of Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, John Mayer, The Black Crowes, George Harrison, The Allman Brothers Band, The Indigo Girls, Blues Traveler, Train, Montgomery-Gentry, Lee Ann Womack and many, many more. Besides being a well-established pianist/artist in the music industry, he’s a published author, tree farmer, and advocate of keeping our environment healthy.
Chuck’s conservation work began in the early 1980s during a rare lull in music. He sensed that opportunity grew from Georgia soil. Trees. He began to study forestry, even studying forestry by correspondence while riding a tour bus with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. It took time, but he and Rose Lane would turn their land into a textbook tree farm.
Years later, Charlane Woodlands—an award winning tree farm near Macon, Georgia—earned Chuck a reputation as one of the country’s foremost conservationists. Twice Chuck has been the Outstanding Tree Farmer for Georgia, and in l999 he and Rose Lane were both named National Outstanding Tree Farmers. The National Arbor Day Foundation, Georgia Conservancy, and many other conservation organizations recognize Chuck’s accomplishments.
Chuck decided to share his forestry knowledge and experience in books. He wrote Forever Green: The History and Hope of the American Forest because he realized the general public misunderstood forestry. People would say “They’re just killing all the trees—they’re cutting them all down.’”
“I wanted to write about that misunderstanding and cover not only the era when there was rape and pillage of the forest, but also the period of recovery. Gifford Pinchot, Carl Schenck, a German, and Bernhard Fernow, a Prussian, led the way, along with conservationists like John Muir and, of course, Teddy Roosevelt. I wanted folks to know about the Cradle of Forestry in America in Asheville with Pinchot working for the Vanderbilts.”