Assuming a positive report on its inspection by the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's office on Monday, September 26, the Southern Loggers Cooperative expected to immediately begin pumping diesel at its first fueling station on Thomas Mill Road in Winnfield, WInn Parish, Louisiana.

Coop Executive Director Clyde Todd, Jr., said the Winnfield station is the first of a planned network of ten stations located in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Primary beneficiaries are member logging contractors and forest products haulers who are seeking to control fuel costs, a major factor in their operations. Todd said the Cooperative is seeking a USDA loan to finance the fueling stations. Next locations are expected to be in Campti, located in Natchitoches Parish at the intersection of U.S. Highway 71, U.S. 84, and Louisiana Highway 6, and at Mansfield, in DeSoto Parish at the intersection of U.S. 171 and U.S. 84, near the Sabine River border with East Texas.

Current membership is at 62, Todd said, with the largest group from Louisiana, and others from Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The fueling stations will be unmanned, with member drivers carrying a card for access to the gates and to the pumps. Pricing, including appropriate taxes, will reflect the cost of purchase and transportation, plus administrative cost, Todd said. "We're not a for-profit organization, but we do have to cover the costs of serving our members. We will give our members the lowest prices we can."

Diesel will be supplied by Davison Petroleum Products, a division of Davison Transport, a nationwide tanker hauler based in Ruston, Louisiana.

The Cooperative expects to add other basic products to its line, primarily serving loggers and haulers, who face increasing cost of operation in today's highly competitive forest products industry. Groups eligible for membership include logging contractors, truckers of forest products in their natural state, forest road contractors, silvicultural contractors, and forest landowners.

Southern Logging Cooperative was organized at the beginning of 2005 by a group of Louisiana based logging contractors, whose board includes Travis Taylor, president; Glen Hinson, vice-president; Mary Todd, secretary; and David Cupp, treasurer. The executive director, Clyde Todd, Jr., is a retired forester from the USDA Forest Service, who later served as the first director of the Louisiana Logging Council, an affiliate of the Louisiana Forestry Association.

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