Charles Alan Birnbaum graduated from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, receiving a Bachelor in Landscape Architecture in 1983.

"Sites can be at-risk for numerous reasons, ranging from an imminent threat of demolition to an accumulation of factors — storm damage, lack of resources for needed maintenance, vandalism, etc."

His first "Bridging the Nature Culture Divide Conference" was held in Rye, New York at the Jay Estate in 2011 and resulted in progress to reimagine historic gardens at the site in a sustainable manner.

[8] In 2013, Birnbaum galvanized a group of advocates to stop the demolition of Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis and helped negotiate terms for the rehabilitation of the public space.

[10][11] Through TCLF, he has brought the names of forgotten landscape designers and stewards, particularly women like Ruth Shellhorn, an advisor to Walt Disney, and Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer, to the forefront.

He has produced numerous oral history modules about practitioners in his field along with profiles of notable modern landscape architects like James van Sweden, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Lawrence Halprin and Paul Friedberg.