Rolling Stones keyboard player Chuck Leavell is an award-winning tree farmer and active sustainability and conservation advocate.

I hesitate to use my editorial platform to pontificate. Presenting diverse views is one of the strengths of this website. But there is one thing I know to be true: the Rolling Stones are the greatest rock band ever. Their iconic sound is pure rock and roll satisfaction and has never been surpassed.

Now that's taken care of, what does it have to do with tree farming?

Quite a lot actually.

A talented and respected musician, Rolling Stones keyboard player Chuck Leavell's accomplishments as a conservationist and tree farmer are equally impressive. Interested in forestry from early on, he studied it by correspondence while riding a tour bus with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the mid 1980s. Later, Leavell and his wife Rose Lane White Leavell turned her family's plantation in Dry Branch, Georgia, into what has become a textbook tree farm.

Constantly searching and finding ways to improve both wildlife habitat and forest management, they have observed and studied conservation techniques in Germany, Sweden, Canada, the United States, and other countries. They have improved the land for timber production and wildlife management and enhanced habitat for the native quail, deer, turkey, and duck populations.

As 1999 National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year (selected by the American Forest Foundation and the American Tree Farm System), and as active advocates of sustainable forestry and environmental concerns, Chuck and Rose Lane carry the message of good stewardship and balance of natural resources around the globe.

With Georgia well on its way to becoming a world leader in biomass energy, Wood Business asked Chuck Leavell for his thoughts about the role of a tree farmer in a changing and sometimes challenging forest industry. He graciously took time out from his hectic schedule to share his experiences and insights.

Wood Business: Your 2,500 acre Charlane Plantation is a model of mixed-use forest, incorporating tree farming, conservation, hunting and recreational use. How do you harmonize these various activities?

Chuck Leavell: Managing for timber use is important, but it doesn’t bring in enough income to keep things going, so through the years we’ve experimented with some “side” projects. We started with Christmas trees. It was fun and we enjoyed the aesthetic aspect of it, but it wasn’t bringing us the return we were looking for, so eventually we phased it out. Interestingly, some of the Eastern Red Cedar we planted have gone on to mature, and we’ve used some of them in the various building projects around Charlane, like our Lodge. We still have about 5 or 6 acres that are continuing to mature, and they are about 20 years old now. I’ve been pruning them and at some point we’ll have some beautiful and valuable lumber out of them.

Back in the early 90’s we purchased a 320 acre tract that had an old farm house on it. We took our time and renovated it, not sure what we would do with it. After the renovation, Rose Lane and I talked about using it for a guest house and starting a commercial hunting offering. About 7 years ago we expanded that and built a 5,000 square foot lodge with 4 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. We used our own wood to build it.

I’m always looking “up” when I’m riding around our place...looking for dead trees. They might be struck by lighting, have bugs in them....or just have come to the end or their road, dying naturally. We buck them up into logs and haul them about 20 miles down the road to a small sawmill that a friend owns. We saw them into lumber and store them for future use. So our Lodge was built out of that wood, which is kind of cool. We also renovated the house we live in with that wood, as well as building our horse barn and other structures with it.

In any case, the Lodge expanded our guest quarters for our hunters and we have parties up to 12 or so that we can accommodate. At this point, we are starting to offer retreats in the off season. My wife, Rose Lane, is a fine artist and our first retreats will be focused on that. We have a good instructor lined up and we’ll be offering a sort of long weekend of painting and instruction. Eventually we hope to offer retreats focused on things like birding, forestry, wildlife and who knows....maybe even music!

WB: How much of the property is timberland, how much of it is harvested annually and how is the timber used?

CL: Probably about 70 percent is forested, but many of those areas have multiple use: hunting, recreation and such. Some of the young and juvenile forests are too dense for those uses, although we have little “oasis” scattered around that we might have a deer stand in or that's good for turkey hunting. The roads in the dense areas are great for horseback riding, walking or jogging.

As far as harvesting, there is no set plan. It depends on so many things - the market, the weather, the condition and age of the stand. Basically, we just keep a close eye on things and when the opportunity is there, we put together a harvest.

We take a very long term view, and our rotation would be quite different from that of a timber company. I’d say we look at something like a 60 year rotation as opposed to about a 30-40 year rotation that most timber companies go for in southern yellow pine. Our trees go for multiple use. The young ones for pulp and paper products or perhaps for fence posts, the older ones for lumber.

These days all of us timber growers are keeping a close eye on the biomass market and we hope that eventually we will be able to get a good price for some of our young and juvenile trees for that purpose. Carbon credits are something we’re also keeping an eye on, but it’s early in the game for both of those markets.

WB: Do you think bioenergy (biomass power, wood pellets, biofuels, etc.) is a viable use for timber, or should only wood residues be used?

CL: Absolutely viable. But as I said, it’s still early.

I’ve been working with a group that is interested in putting in a 20 megawatt (biomass) electric plant in our county, and there is also a plant about an hour away that will make liquid fuels from biomass.

At present, the “scale-up” is holding back that market, but I have no doubt that there will be a breakthrough on the liquid fuels technology from biomass in the near future and that it will impact our market.

People like us need a reason to keep their land in trees, and the biomass market looks promising for the future. I can envision early thinnings in certain stands if the biomass market could pay at least what the pulp market pays. And while this has some pulp and paper companies worried, I think competition is a healthy thing.

Eventually I have no doubt we will be harvesting biomass for energy on our land. But at present there just isn’t a market for it where we are. Time will definitely change that, though.

WB: Given the cyclical forestry market, what advice would you give to other forest owners? Should they continue to invest in planting trees?

CL: Of course people should continue to plant and manage their family forests. And they should look to all possible usages. But everyone’s situation is different. Some that can afford to maintain their lands more for recreation and aesthetic use will do so. Others that depend on income will manage more for harvesting and diverse use like hunting, Christmas trees, perhaps some agriculture products on part of their lands. Just like it’s smart to diversify a financial portfolio, it’s smart to diversify land use. But again, all situations are not the same.

WB: What advice would you give those who might want to try a mixed-use approach like Charlane Plantation?

CL: Well, it’s working for us. My advice is to find something that you love doing. I love bird hunting - training the dogs, working the habitat, meeting and spending time with the good folks that come hunting with us. But someone else might prefer planting some fruit trees, nut trees, nursery stock. Some might want to breed horses. Some might want to have alpacas or llamas on their place in addition to their family forests. There are a lot of options, but the main thing is to find something you really love doing.

WB: What aspect of your development of Charlane Plantation are you most proud of and what future projects do you have in mind?

CL: I talked about our retreat concept earlier. We’ll definitely be pursuing that. And we’re just going to continue to keep doing what we are doing.

As far as what we’re proud of? The bottom line is that you want to leave the land in better shape than you found it. And I hope - and believe - we are doing that.

www.charlane.com
www.chuckleavell.com

Chuck Leavell is also Director of Environmental Affairs for The Mother Nature Network.

www.forestfoundation.org
www.treefarmsystem.org
www.gfagrow.org

Next >