Paradise in the Pines

Paradise in the Pines

As keyboardist for The Rolling Stones, Chuck Leavell will take Manhattan when he has to. But at the end of a concert tour, give him that good old countryside—sepecifically, the 2,200 acres he shares with his wife, Rose Lane, outside of Macon, Ga. “People ask me, ‘Chuck, you’ve been all over the world. What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen?’ I tell them: ‘Bullard, Georgia.’”

Rose Lane agrees wholeheartedly. Though she enjoys accompanying her husband on flashy rock ’n’ roll tours, she feels just as strongly that the plantation they share is paradise.

The couple inherited half the acreage—and their historic 1800s house—from Rose Lane’s grandmother in 1981. “At that time, we were happy living in Macon,” Rose Lane says. “We had a lovely home, (daughter) Amy was in school there, Chuck’s music career was thriving, and I had a successful clothing boutique. But the minute my grandmother died, that part of my life didn’t exist anymore. We moved out here within a week, because we realized … this was the big picture,” she continues. “I don’t know why it happened so quickly, but we suddenly became totally protective of it.”

The Leavells haven’t looked back. They had their second daughter, Ashley, while living in Bullard, and gave both their kids a country childhood, complete with berry picking, horseback riding, and lake swimming. They also began new careers—as tree farmers.

Rose Lane’s grandparents and parents had worked in forestry, but the lifestyle was new to Chuck. So he launched into research by asking relatives and experts for advice, reading books, attending seminars, and consulting with the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“The more I pursued this, the more fascinated I became with it and the more I realized how important the resource of wood is,” Chuck says. “Even my instrument wouldn’t exist without wood, because most pianos are made from red maple. And the beautiful thing about it is that trees are renewable.”

They now grow a variety of pine—southern yellow, loblolly, longleaf, and shortleaf—which are harvested on a 60-year rotation. But they leave a portion of their forests untouched for native wildlife, including turkey, deer, and bears.

Chuck and Rose Lane developed a strong belief that with proper management, wood is a resource that can, and should, be used forever.

“It’s natural for us to take these things and use them and craft them, to build with them, and maintain them, and be the stewards we’re meant to be of this world,” Chuck says.

“But we can’t go cut everything we want,” he adds. “It takes a long time to grow a tree, so when you decide to harvest, you have to be really careful. What I try to do is give a balanced view, a balanced response, and a balanced answer.”

Chuck shares this message in his book, Forever Green, The History and Hope of the American Forest, and with those he meets while traveling with the Stones and other bands. He also serves as the Georgia Forestry Association’s (GFA) spokesperson now, and he and Rose Lane both serve on the American Forest Foundation’s national operating committee. They sponsor a forestry scholarship at the University of Georgia at Athens, and have built a nature trail on their property to educate students about environmental issues.

“Chuck and Rose Lane are great stewards of their land,” says Sharon Beningfield, of the GFA. “It’s amazing how people will start thinking about forestry in a whole other light when they hear our messages through Chuck.”

That’s partly because there’s more good news about our forests than people sometimes believe, Chuck says.

“As a matter of fact, there are more forests now than there were back in the ’30s,” he adds. “There are great new management techniques, and we’re learning all the time. The beautiful thing about the resource of wood is it does grow back, and with proper care and maintenance and attention, these things will be here forever.”

Kara Carden is a regular contributor to American Profile.

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