Even in the best of times, farming in Louisiana has always been a risky business; a gamble on rainfall, storm events, and fluctuations in the price of crops, chemicals, equipment and fuel. Rather than pinning their hopes on the success of farming in a market that is increasingly difficult to prosper from, some landowners are establishing alternative crops on their properties, including, in the case of the Petrus family of Monroe, a forest of native hardwood trees.
Though his 1,320-acre family farm of prime soils had been cleared and successfully worked by leaseholders for some fifty years, the Petrus family was eager to find a means of providing steady income without the seasonal risk of traditional farming.
In 2008, Wayne Petrus heard a presentation at the Madison Parish NRCS office by a company called GreenTrees which offered to replace his cotton, corn and beans with hardwood trees, all the while earning the Petrus family regular payments.
After lengthy consultation with his family and financial consultants, Petrus converted 1,162 acres of prime cropland to forest, persuaded by the prospect of multiple streams of guaranteed revenue: GreenTrees funded the forestation process, CRP payments rewarded his creation of wildlife habitat, and eventually he will selectively harvest valuable timber.