America's Forests With Chuck Leavell

Chuck Leavell visits Oregon, where people are embracing new ways of engaging with the woods. In Portland, they are building skyscrapers from timber; in Bend, they are fighting fire with fire; in the Siuslaw National Forest, they are bringing back the salmon.

Chuck Leavell visits Colorado, where he follows the path of clean drinking water from forests to faucets. He is introduced to innovative ways that Coloradans are embracing beetle-kill wood; then he discovers the gift of peace that comes to military veterans from fly-fishing in mountain streams.

Chuck Leavell visits South Carolina, where forests have always been an integral part of the state's identity. He learns the uplifting story of how groups have come together to create the Sustainable Forestry and African-American Land Retention program, which have helped to make trees the state's number one cash crop.

Chuck Leavell travels on a dream-come-true trip by motorcycle to Paul Bunyan country, the Wisconsin Northwoods, where he discovers these forests, which are blessed with over 75 varieties of trees, mean big business for the state, from an array of products to unforgettably beautiful recreation and tourist destinations.

Chuck Leavell is back in the saddle - of his motorcycle - heading toward Milwaukee, where the Urban Wood movement turns city trees into heirloom furniture; to Madison's Forest Products Lab, the nation's premiere site for wood research; next, a tribute to Aldo Leopold, a pioneer in forest ecology; then an event to benefit Log-A-Load for Kids.

Chuck Leavell begins his visit to California meeting wildfire survivors from Paradise and learns of a wildfire-fighting tactic ecological forestry; in Redwood County he sees the tallest trees in the world; he discovers biomass means converting wood chips and dead trees into renewable energy; then a tribute to guitar-making legend, Leo Fender, at the Fender Instrument Factory.