Mark and Janora Crow: 2026 Jon Gould Florida Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year

By Eric Deprez, Florida Forest Service

Photos by Mark Crow

The Florida Tree Farm Program proudly recognizes Mark and Janora Crow as the 2026 Jon Gould Florida Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year, honoring more than six decades of exemplary forest stewardship, sustainable land management, and an unwavering commitment to preserving Florida’s working forests for future generations.

For the Crow family, forestry is far more than an occupation—it is a way of life and a legacy that now spans four generations.

A Family Tradition Rooted in Stewardship

The story began in the early 1950s when Mark’s father, Ned Crow, a Columbia County schoolteacher, purchased an 80-acre farm along the Suwannee-Columbia County line. While teaching full time, Ned cultivated timber, tobacco, corn, and livestock—including Aberdeen Angus cattle and hogs—building a family farm that would become a model of sustainable forestry.

Growing up on the property, Mark learned the value of hard work at an early age. He drove tractors, hand-planted pine seedlings, and worked alongside his parents in every aspect of farm management. The family’s operation advanced when forester Phillip Moses introduced modern silvicultural practices, including mechanized tree planting and improved forest management techniques. Those innovations increased timber production while laying the foundation for the family’s lifelong commitment to sustainable forestry.

An Inspired Forestry Career

Inspired by those early experiences, Mark first studied wildlife biology at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College before earning a bachelor’s degree in forestry from Mississippi State University. Following graduation, he returned to his home state of Florida as a County Forester in Gadsden County with the Florida Division of Forestry (now the Florida Forest Service). It was there that he met and married Janora Roberts, beginning a partnership that would shape both their family and their stewardship of the land.

Mark later accepted a position as Reforestation Supervisor at Herrin Nursery in Lake Placid, where he oversaw seedling production and reforestation operations. After two years, Mark and Janora returned to North Florida when Mark was selected as District Forester for the Florida Division of Forestry’s Lake City District. The move brought them back to the family farm, allowing them to continue their forestry and education careers while helping care for the land that had been in the Crow family since the early 1950s.

When Ned Crow passed away in 1988, stewardship of the farm became a true family effort. Mark’s mother, Ann Crow, was equally committed to implementing sound forestry practices and ensuring the land remained healthy and productive. Her dedication to sustainable forest management earned her recognition as Florida’s 2002 Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year. She also served North Florida through an appointment by the Governor to the Suwannee River Water Management District Governing Board, where she helped guide the conservation and protection of the region’s valuable water resources and natural ecosystems.

While Mark devoted his professional career to forestry, Janora built a distinguished career in education, serving students and families in North Florida for many years. Together, they balanced demanding public service careers while remaining deeply committed to managing the family Tree Farm. Janora has been an active partner in virtually every aspect of the operation—from planting pine seedlings and assisting with reforestation projects to supporting prescribed burning, wildlife habitat improvement, and the long-term planning required to sustain a healthy working forest. Her dedication to both education and conservation has helped make the Tree Farm a true family enterprise and reflects the partnership that has defined the Crow family’s stewardship for more than four decades.

Throughout the years, Mark and Janora have worked side by side implementing many of the farm’s management practices—from planting thousands of pine seedlings together to conducting prescribed burns, improving wildlife habitat, and carefully managing the family’s forest resources.

Today, the family’s commitment to stewardship continues through the next generation. Their daughter Katelyn Potter and her husband, Todd, live on one of the Tree Farm parcels with their two young sons, Smith and Crow. Their other daughter, Abigail Dicks, and her husband, Matt, reside in the home where Mark grew up with their three children—Carolina, Sarah Ann, and John. Together, four generations of the Crow family call the Tree Farm home, ensuring that its legacy of conservation, sustainable forestry, and responsible land stewardship will continue for generations to come.

A Legacy of Certified Excellence

The Crow Tree Farm has been certified through the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) for more than 60 years. In 1967, it became Florida’s 1,000th certified Tree Farm, an achievement recognized by Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Doyle Conner and Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr., who honored the Crow family for their commitment to responsible forest stewardship. The property also became certified in the Florida Forest Stewardship Program in 2002.

Today, the family manages approximately 750 acres, including 643 acres of productive woodlands, spread across six parcels that straddle the Columbia and Suwannee County line. The Crow family’s forestry legacy has now been recognized across three generations—from the family’s recognition as Florida’s 1,000th Tree Farm in 1967, to Ann Crow’s selection as Florida’s 2002 Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year, and now Mark and Janora Crow’s recognition as the 2026 Jon Gould Florida Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year. These honors reflect more than six decades of dedication to sustainable forestry, conservation, and responsible stewardship of Florida’s natural resources.

Managing Forests for Wildlife, Water, and Wood

The Crow family’s management philosophy reflects the true meaning of multiple-use forestry—producing quality timber while enhancing wildlife habitat, protecting water resources, and maintaining healthy forest ecosystems.

As a certified prescribed burn manager, Mark considers prescribed fire to be his most valuable management tool. Each year, he strives to burn between 200 and 300 acres, maintaining firelines, reducing hazardous fuels, and encouraging healthy native plant communities.

The property includes planted slash and longleaf pine stands, natural hardwood forests, cypress flat ponds, two creeks, wildlife openings, and numerous food plots. Throughout every management activity, forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are implemented to protect soil and water quality while safeguarding the watershed.

Mark has witnessed remarkable changes in wildlife populations during his lifetime.

“We had some quail on the farm, but I never saw a turkey or a deer,” he recalls. “I remember seeing the first deer when I was in college during the mid-1970s. After that, we began leaving the roads more open and creating food plots.”

Today, years of careful habitat management support thriving populations of white-tailed deer, wild turkey, quail, and numerous other native wildlife species.

Adapting to Changing Conditions

The Crow Tree Farm contains pine stands ranging from newly established plantings to mature timber approaching 30 years of age. Most are planted with containerized slash and longleaf pine, while one tract features a carefully managed five-acre stand of loblolly pine established in 1994.

This year, Mark plans to plant an additional 20 acres of containerized longleaf pine, continuing the family’s long-term investment in Florida’s native forests. Management practices include thinning, prescribed burning, rotational mowing, chopping, and mechanical site preparation. Recent drought conditions required Mark to temporarily replace prescribed burning with mechanical underbrush treatments. “With all of the dead wood on the ground from beetles and previous storms,” he explains, “chopping has been safer and more efficient than mowing recently thinned stands.”

As weather conditions improve, prescribed burning will once again become the cornerstone of the property’s management strategy.

Although portions of the property once supported commercial pine straw production, Mark has shifted the focus toward enhancing wildlife habitat and improving overall forest health.

A Familiar Face in Florida Forestry

Mark’s influence extends well beyond his own property. Throughout his career, he has remained an active member of the Florida Forestry Association and served for 15 years on the Florida Farm Bureau Forestry Advisory Committee. He has welcomed countless foresters, landowners, students, and natural resource professionals onto the Crow Tree Farm for educational tours, forest health workshops, prescribed fire demonstrations, and equipment field days. In 2020, the Florida Forest Service recognized Mark as the National Association of State Foresters Outstanding Forest Landowner.

Perhaps his greatest contribution has been his willingness to mentor others. Whether advising neighboring landowners, demonstrating sound forestry practices, or sharing decades of experience with young foresters, Mark has consistently invested in the success of others. Together, Mark and Janora continue passing along the values of stewardship, conservation, and responsible forest management to their children and grandchildren, ensuring the Crow family’s forestry legacy will endure for generations to come.

Honoring the Legacy of Jon Gould

The Jon Gould Florida Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year Award commemorates the life and legacy of Jon Gould, a respected member of Florida’s Tree Farm Program State Committee and a lifelong advocate for sustainable forestry.

A Florida Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year in 2006 and Southern Regional Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year in 2018, Gould dedicated more than three decades to promoting responsible forest stewardship throughout the Southeast. Following his passing in 2019, the Florida Tree Farm Program renamed its highest honor in his memory beginning in 2020.

Like Jon Gould, the Crow family has demonstrated that exceptional forestry is built upon long-term vision, stewardship, and a willingness to invest in future generations. Their commitment to healthy forests, abundant wildlife, clean water, education, and community leadership embodies the very ideals the award was created to recognize.

As recipients of the 2026 Jon Gould Florida Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year Award, Mark and Janora Crow represent not only the success of one family, but also the enduring importance of family-owned working forests across Florida. Their story is a testament to the lasting impact that thoughtful stewardship can have on the land, the people who depend on it, and the generations who will one day inherit it.

To learn more about the Florida Tree Farm Program and the American Tree Farm System, visit www.treefarmsystem.org/florida.

This article was written by Eric Deprez, Florida Forest Service.