An evening of celebrating conservation with the Rolling Stones' Chuck Leavell

Chuck Leavell has played with the greats since the 1960s: the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Widespread Panic, John Mayer, the Black Crowes, and the list goes on and on. He is currently the pianist/keyboardist and musical director for the Rolling Stones, but when he’s not on stage in front of thousands, he’s working to protect forests.

"Like many people, I'd taken trees and forests for granted most of my life, but as I studied this, I began to realize all the things that they give us,” said Liddell. “You know, materials to make our homes and schools and churches. Materials to make books and magazines. Newspaper, fine furniture. They clean our air, they clean our water."

Chuck understands the importance of land conservation so much that he and his wife, Rose Lane, permanently protected hundreds of acres of their family farm. Now he's helping support the Madison-Morgan Conservancy — Georgia’s first countywide conservancy — expand into Georgia's newest regional land trust to increase the pace of permanent land protection in Georgia.

For 25 years, the Madison-Morgan Conservancy has been working to permanently protect "farms, forests and front porches" for future generations. 6,000 acres later, the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary last fall by hosting “An Evening with Chuck Leavell” at the Cultural Center's historic, intimate, 400-seat auditorium, renowned for its exceptional acoustics — the perfect place to hear Chuck Leavell tickle the ivories and talk about his music career and passion for conservation.

Of the evening, the conservancy wrote:

We honored the visionaries, landowners, and preservationists who have shaped our community over the past 25 years with our first-ever Conservation & Preservation Awards.

Then the legendary Chuck Leavell took the stage, sharing stories from his rise to stardom, playing songs from his years with the Allman Brothers and the Rolling Stones, and speaking about his love for forestry and his own Charlane Plantation. Despite an injured finger, Chuck played beautifully and left us all inspired.

We are so very grateful to the Sponsors, Cultural Center, and Host Committee that made this milestone celebration possible.

"As Metro Atlanta expands east, it is critical for growth to include conservation of natural resources on the front end," said Christine Watts, Madison-Morgan Conservancy’s executive director. "Protect it before it's gone and grow around it. This kind of approach is not often seen in Georgia, but that's what this conservancy is trying to do in these seven counties east. It's cheaper that way, too, than trying to reclaim those resources on the backend."

About the Madison-Morgan Conservancy

For twenty-five years, in the midst of the Southeast’s largest and fastest-growing metropolitan area, the Madison-Morgan Conservancy has been protecting farms, forests and front porches for future generations, successfully protecting critical resources and creating a culture of conservation like nowhere else in Georgia. Thanks to the conservancy's 600+ members, hundreds of donors and its terrific partners, Morgan County now boasts more than 6,000 acres of permanently protected land, a solid start to protecting the critical mass of land required to avoid sprawl. Now in its 25th year, the conservancy is working to become Georgia's first accredited, regional land trust since the 1990s in order to help this region remain productive, wild and beautiful for generations to come.