By James Ronald Skains
Journal Corresponent

Richard Landry of Alexandria has been selected as the Louisiana Forestry Association Future Forest winner for 2005 for his immaculately kept 25 acres of four-year and five-months old super loblolly pine. The award was presented during the LFA annual convention held in New Orleans Aug. 30-Sept. 1.

"I planted these trees about five and half years ago and they are twenty foot tall with 5" to 6" base," Landry told the Piney Woods Journal. "I'm really amazed at how fast they have grown. I'm thinking about planting a thirty acre cotton field in pine seedlings."

The award, for reforestation work on Landry's "Little Ponderosa" Tree Farm in Evangeline Parish, is given annually by LFA to recognize outstanding forest regeneration on land owned by small private landowners. Landry was nominated for the award by forester Jimmy Moss of Alexandria.

Landry owns 115 acres, of which the 25 acres in plantation were noted for the award.

His pine plantation is on a former cow pasture that joins the Chicot State park property in Evangeline Parish. "We've used the property which has been in the family for many years since 1974 as recreation property," Landry pointed out. "For a couple of years, every time I would drive through the pasture, I would say to my self, `there has to be something I can do on this property that will be more profitable than a cow pasture'."

"Finally, I made the decision to plant it and I've been amazed at the results," Landry noted. "I've been mowing between the rows from the first year they were planted with my 1948 Ford tractor. This will be my last year to bush-hog because with the rapid growth of the trees, I can't get my mower down the rows without hitting the trees."

Landry has spent a lifetime in the hardwood lumber industry, first as a lumber grader for Roy O. Martin Lumber nearly thirty five years ago. He is perturbed that his property does not qualify for cost sharing because of an outdated Evangeline Parish soil survey.

"The old soil survey classifies my property as galleon soil which is sandy loam," Landry explained. "This means that it is classified as farmland, not timber land. Even though I was not eligible on my property for the cost sharing program, I'm still thinking seriously about planting the 30 acres in the super-loblolly pine seedlings."

"It has been a real pleasure for me to see how fast these pines have grown," Landry, who has other adjacent property with mixed hardwood and pine from natural seeding, said. "I'm sixty-five now, I may get to see at least the first thinning on this tract."

"We have had very little mortality," Landry said. "This is good pine growing land, and we had good rains at the right time."

A sign will be erected on the Tree Farm denoting it as the 2005 Future Forest Award Winner.

Back