For Chuck Leavell, the road to becoming a Georgia tree farmer began with land that came to his wife’s family in 1981. At the time, Leavell was already building the music career that would take him from the Allman Brothers Band to decades of work with the Rolling Stones. The inherited property was farmland, not a ready-made forestry operation. Much of the surrounding land had long been used for crops and livestock. Leavell and his wife, Rose Lane, gradually acquired neighbouring tracts and began changing the way the property was managed. As per the reports by Wall Street Journal, what started with roughly 1,000 acres eventually became Charlane Woodlands and Preserve, a 4,000-acre property outside Macon, with about 70% of the land remaining forested. Their stewardship earned recognition well beyond Georgia, with the American Tree Farm System naming Chuck and Rose Lane the National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year in 1999.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
