A longtime forestry official from Columbia recently received the Mississippi Forestry Association’s highest honor.
Dana Little was given the Meritorious Service to Forestry Award during the association’s annual meeting in Jackson.
The award recognizes an outstanding lifetime contribution to forestry, and each year the winner is chosen collectively by previous recipients.
Little has worked in the industry for 41 years and serves as Hattiesburg area manager for Weyerhaeuser Company, which oversees about 1.25 million acres in its Mississippi/Louisiana timberlands region.
“First of all, I was truly shocked,” he said. “I had no idea I was the recipient.”
Mentoring others in the forestry profession to advance their careers and promoting forestry to the public has always been something he’s done. Little said it all comes back to promoting the principles of God and giving Him the glory.
“Being engaged in service is part of what motivates me,” he said.
He has served the Forestry Association as a committee member, a board member, an executive committee member and president. Little is also very active in several county forestry associations and has spent numerous hours volunteering his time to the Mississippi Forestry Association and the Mississippi Forestry Foundation.
“Dana is always willing to assist MFA and MFF with fundraisers, meetings and other events, and has provided immeasurable input and advice to MFA presidents and staff,” MFA Executive Vice President Tedrick Ratcliff said.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Little said going into college he didn’t really know what he wanted to do but knew he didn’t want to be in an office. Tuskegee University in Alabama had a new pre-forestry program intended to help recruit minorities into the profession, and Little said he entered the program in blind faith.
After two years, he found he began to enjoy and understand the field and transferred to get a degree in forestry from Auburn University.
Crown Zellerbach, which had a paper mill in Bogalusa, La., presented his first job opportunity and after working five years in Louisiana he transferred to Mississippi. A 1985 hostile takeover changed the company to Cavenham Forest Industries, and in 1996 the timberlands portion of that business became part of Weyerhaeuser. The company has regional offices in Hattiesburg, Brookhaven and Hammond, La.
Pictured Above: Dana Little of Columbia holds a plaque from the Mississippi Forestry Association for the 2019 Meritorious Service to Forestry Award at the trade group’s annual meeting in Jackson. Little has more than four decades of experience in forestry and serves as the Hattiesburg area manager for Weyerhaeuser Company. | Photo submitted
