By Jack M. Willis
Journal Corresponent

Since assuming his current position as Executive Director of the Louisiana Logging Council, former International Paper Company executive forester Bill Kleinpeter has expanded operation of the Council's Master Logger training program, a partnership with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative of American Forest & Paper Association.

After retirement of LLC Executive Clyde Todd, Kleinpeter became SFI Coordinator and Executive Director of the Louisiana Logging Council of the Louisiana Forestry Association in February 2005.

Kleinpeter said, "The forestry community of Louisiana has developed a comprehensive 30-hour program to assist loggers, foresters, forest landowners, and others employed in Louisiana forests harvesting the state's number one crop, trees." The program covers OSHA safety requirements, environmental concerns, sustainable forestry practices, and improved business management techniques.

Individual workshops are designed to meet the SFI requirements and are scheduled from February through November.

Master Logger status is required of all logging contractors supplying timber to manufacturer members of AF&PA's Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Completion of the program is required for recognition as a Master Logger by the Louisiana Logging Council and the Louisiana Forestry Association.

"Each year Master Loggers who have successfully completed their Continuing Education requirements receive a card certifying they are in good standing." Kleinpeter said. "The courses taught at the SFI Seminars include an intense four-hour session, interactive videos highlighted by AP&PA's Loss Control for Professional Loggers program, and Operation Lifesaver."

Logging contractors are encouraged to bring their operators for this program. Sessions are held for discussion of hazards in all areas of the logging job and is rewarded with credits for Continuing Foresters Education (CFE) and Continuing Loggers Education (CLE)"

Bill said, "Using the Louisiana logging Safety Manual as a text, logging contractors are made aware of OSHA logging regulations and their responsibility for training employees. The course gives the contractor the information and tools necessary to train his personnel in logging safety."

Sessions review the Logging Safety Video. The text includes sections on OSHA Standards, forms and records, Hazcom programs, MSDS training materials, Safety Policy, Blood borne Pathogens and the Ten-point Safety Plan and is rewarded with CFE-3 hours and CLE four hours.

Kleinpeter commented "The Best Management Practices and Harvest Planning are one of the more valued, fast moving courses. It centers on forest regulatory history, the Clean Water Act, Wetlands, Endangered Species, Reforestation Alternatives, and Harvest or Timber Sale planning."

Using the video, "Louisiana's Voluntary Best Management Practices for Professional Loggers," trainees share their experiences with each other on their use of BMPs. A harvest plan is developed from given facts and presented at the end of the session and participants can accrue credits of CFE, 7 hours and CLE of 8 hours.

Logging contractors posed a question that SFI solved, according to Kleinpeter, "They lamented that they had been told why we must use BMPs, but they wanted us to show them how to apply them, so members of the SFI committee asked the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service to assist in developing a training session addressing the logging contractors's needs. This six-hour combination classroom and field exercise workshop on planning, design and forest water control measures now meets this objective and rewards participants with CFE of 5 hours and CLE of 6 hours."

Klienpeter further stated, "Meeting the business management needs of modern logging contractors is the objective of the eight-hour session on Business Management. An Internal Revenue Agent or a Certified Public Accountant discusses the Wage and Hour laws and leads the class through the procedures of properly reporting federal and state payroll taxes. Other topics covered are off-road fuel regulations, insurance, timber sale reporting requirements, deeds and contracts, how to derive more profits trucking wood, financial management and estate taxes. This course earns CFE of 6.5 hours in category 2, And CLE of 8 hours."

Kleinpeter said, "The last course taught is Forestry Aesthetics, which is essentially the preservation of the natural beauty of the woodlands and is included in the SFI Core Indicators of wood producers training in the 2002-2004 editions of the SFI Standards. The Louisiana SIC added the Forestry Aesthetics to the Core Curriculum for attaining Louisiana Master Logger status by the end of 2003. This three hour workshop, developed by the Forest Resources Association, Inc., was incorporated in the training program to meet this requirement.

SFI Continuing Education Programs include Media Relations, Forest of Exceptional Conservation Value, Special Places, Special Events, Management Teams, Advanced Logging Safety and Managers, Leaders and Followers.

The Sustainable Forest Initiative program was put together in the 90's by the AF&PA, to demonstrate that the logging fraternity manages the forests sustainably. The standards are constantly being changed with the SFI currently establishing new standards for the years 2005-2009.

The Louisiana Forestry Association has outreach programs financed by grants they have received, and in 2004 they targeted the largest cities of the state with a media blitz. This year they spent in excess of $100,000 in New Orleans publicizing Forestry Programs. In 2005 the Louisiana State Implementation Committee was formed made up of loggers, consultants, industrial representatives and landowners, and meets once a month to decide which portion of the state will be addressed next.

Kleinpeter stated, "We plan to raise the standards bar a little higher each year so that Louisiana's population which depend on the logging woods for their livelihood will manage their production in the best manner in which we can instruct them."

Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Bill graduated Catholic High School in 1965, and enrolled at LSU where he graduated in 1970 with a degree in Forestry. Upon graduation he was a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, with his first tour of duty as a member of a Battalion Landing Team, with ports of call at Okinawa, the Philippines and Japan. His group's role was to reinforce Infantry Battalions. After this overseas tour he spent the rest of his hitch in Philadelphia, PA, and in the meantime he marryied a Baton Rouge girl and resigned his commission.

Kleinpeter was employed by International Paper Company in Baldwin County, Alabama for four years before being relocated to Greenville, AL, just south of Montgomery, and later to Camden, Arkansas where he ran three logging crews as a Wood Products Supervisor. After this stint he went to Hampton, Arkansas as Logging and Fiber Supply Area Manager. In 1982 Bill was stationed back in Camden, remaining until November of 1998, then to Mansfield, LA as Area Manager of the Southwest Area of IP, covering Western Louisiana and East Texas.

Kleinpeter retired from IP in 2002 and spent most of the next two years doing some forests management and timber cruising on private tracts.

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