FishbowlDC
By Betsy Rothstein
Chuck Leavell feels more at home in the back woods of Bullard, Ga. than anywhere. As a tree farmer, that’s only fitting.
But he steps easily into other settings. Like Tryst Coffeehouse-Bar for a lengthy interview on a low to the floor mustard velour couch. Well-dressed with a thick wavy mane of white hair and a southern drawl, he has toured with the Rolling Stones, playing piano and keyboards. It has taken him all over the world to locales like exotic Copacabana Beach in Rio. But being a tree hugger has also lured him to Washington to lobby his cause, testify on two Senate farm bills, meet two presidents and attend a black-tie White House dinner for Prince Charles and wife, Camilla.
Those trees are as close as his business cards. His are varying shades of sand and made of two-ply southern pine.
This week Leavell rolled into town to speak at the National Press Club about his newly released book, Growing a Better America, slum it with the Second Amendments, a congressional rock band, and meet with politicians like Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). “They can play,” he said firmly, when pressed on whether the congressional band was any good. “I just think it’s really cool that we have musicians in Congress.” While impressing them with his music, he chats them up on things just as close to this heart like the daily loss of forest and natural lands to growth and development. “The country loses 2500 acres a day,” he says, reeling off a host of statistics.
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