Mary Frances Hough of Shreveport is the Future Forest Award winner for 2000 for the Louisiana Forestry Association, an award that recognizes small landowners for doing a good job reforesting land.
The award was presented during the annual meeting of the Louisiana Forestry Association held in late August in Alexandria.

Mrs. Hough owns 81 acres on Hwy. 171 in Sabine Parish near Noble. In 1993, 71 acres were harvested but the owner regenerated the property with a healthy stand that is now 5 1/2 years old. The forest land is enrolled in the Smurfit-Stone Container Landowners Assistance Program and the foresters there help develop a management plan with timber production as the primary focus. Their secondary objectives include wildlife habitat improvement and aesthetics.
The land was site-prepared in 1994 and in January of 1995 workers hand planted genetically improved loblolly pine trees.

"The income from this land helped us educate our two sons," said Mrs. Hough, referring to her late husband.