Press Release of Senator Lugar Lugar & Chuck Leavell discuss trees, climate Tuesday, August 4, 2009 U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar met with Chuck Leavell, a fellow tree farmer and long-time keyboardist for the Rolling Stones, on August 3, 2009.   Leavell presented Lugar with a copy of his book, Forever Green, and the two discussed forestry’s contribution to sequestering carbon.   Leavell and his wife are two-time Georgia Tree Farmer of the Year recipients and were the 1999 National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the year.   Lugar manages his family's 604-acre farm in Marion County and began converting land that was devoted to corn and soybeans to black walnut trees more than 20 years ago. In 2002, he received the Black Walnut Achievement Award from the International Walnut Council and Indiana's Tree Farmer of the Year Award at the 105th Annual Convention of the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association. Throughout his career in the U.S. Senate, Lugar has strongly supported the Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center at Purdue University.   Lugar is a member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition. He has championed programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and farm Best Management Practices, which have resulted in the increased potential of trees and crops to sequester CO2 and other gases. The CRP is the largest tree-planting program in history. Millions of acres have been planted to trees since 1985 and millions more have been left as grasses and not tilled.   ###