Travis Taylor named to office in ALC

By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

Travis Taylor of Goldonna, Louisiana was elected Secretary of the American Logging Council at the September annual conference held in Flagstaff, Arizona. Under the ALC officer format, Taylor will become President in three years.

"In 2013, we will have the opportunity to hold the American Logging Council in Louisiana," Taylor told the Piney Woods Journal. "It will be the first time that Louisiana has ever hosted this annual meeting.''

Taylor has been logging for 42 years since graduating from Louisiana Tech Universitry in Forestry in 1967. Taylor spent one year as a Forester for Joe Burns. He then ventured out into the woods as a full time logger cutting and hauling logs for Joe Burns. Later, Taylor begin working for other companies and then began to buy his own timber.

"I guess that you can say that I came out of the woods about ten years ago," said Taylor who was selected as Logger of the Year in 1997. "Before that, I just stayed in the woods and logged but by then, I had begun to suspect that a major change was in store for the loggers."

In 2001, Taylor was first elected an officer in the Louisiana Logging Council. Later he served two terms as President of the LLC. For the last seven years, he has been the Southern delegate to the American Logging Council.

"In the 1990's, you could make a good living and enjoy it logging, but that all began to change in 2000," Taylor said. "When the Canadian Softwood Agreement expired, Canada flooded the market with cheap lumber. We had a huge building boom between 2000 and 2006 but more loggers and saw mills went out of business than ever before in history," Taylor elaborated. "However, the loggers and saw-millers in America didn't get their fair share of the building boom because of all the foreign lumber coming into the market."

"You would be surprised at the small amount of the lumber bought here in the Piney Woods is actually manufactured here," Taylor noted. "You can buy plenty of lumber from Canada, Mexico, the Scandinavian countries and Germany, but not much home grown and sawed southern yellow pine."

The Canadian Softwood Agreement expired in 2000, and immediately the Canadian forest products industry flooded the U.S. lumber market. The agreement had previously limited the amount of cheap Canadian lumber through a tariff system that could come into the United States.

"We couldn't compete with the Canadians on an un-level playing field," Taylor, pointed out. "In Canada, a tremendous amount of the timber land is owned by the government, or the Crown as they call it. To keep the mills in Canada running, the Crown sells the timber to the mills for virtually no stumpage fee," Taylor noted. "In the US, we have to pay a stumpage fee to the landowners but up there, they had the first advantage in not paying a stumpage fee. Secondly, the Canadian government subsidizes their forestry industry in many other ways," Taylor said.

Taylor is a nationally known logger for his innovative use of cut-to-length logging equipment from Norway, the use of in-woods chippers and his involvement in both the Louisiana Logging Council and the American Logging Council.

"Back in 2000 and 2001, we were misled by our politicos and trade organizations as to what was truly going on," Taylor elaborated. "They told us that the cheap lumber would be stopped by the World Trade Organization but that effort fizzled out. It is my understanding that the federal government sold out the U.S. forest industry under the terms of the NAFTA Agreement," Taylor stated. "For a commitment by the Canadians to continue to supply the U.S. with natural gas and oil in times of a energy crisis, the U.S. government opened the doors wide open for Canada to send their cheap lumber into the US without any tariffs."

"We have dramatically improved our logging force in the last twelve years through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Best Management Practices," Taylor said. "What is left of the logging force is well trained in all aspects of logging and best management practices. We have continuing educational classes with the SFI and BMP," Taylor pointed out, "but all that effort has not improved the bottom line financially for the logger."

"One of the major problems the loggers face in Louisiana is that our Logging Council is not an independent organization from the Louisiana Forestry Association," Taylor explained. "In most states, the Logging Council is independent of the major trade organizations. This sometimes makes for a confused situation here in Louisiana since what is good for the major forest industry companies is not always good for the loggers," Taylor stated. "The major forest industry companies pay a small fee for sustainable forestry and best management training for the loggers. In addition, the Louisiana Logging Council through the LFA had not been supporting the American Logging Council as it should have in my opinion," Taylor said. "For instance, the Washington State Loggers Association contributes $20,000 annually to the American Logging Council budget."

"A few years ago, I was shocked to find out that our Logging Council only contributed $500 annually," Taylor elaborated. "I was able to get our annual contribution to the ALC raised to $4,000 which is still on the low compared to other states' logging council."

"In 2008, the logging industry took a dramatic turn for the worse from an already bad situation when diesel got over four dollars a gallon," Taylor pointed out. "That was followed by probably the worst crisis ever in the forest products industry when our markets virtually went away."

"One thing that I have learned since `coming out of the woods' is that until a sale is made, nothing else matters," Taylor explained. "You can have a well trained logging force and a very efficient operation, but if the mills are not selling lumber and the paper-mills selling paper, they don't need your logs and wood."

In 2006, Taylor and Mickey Hawkins purchased a chip mill in Winnfield from the J.K. Martin heirs. Taylor has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Winnfield-based Timbermen's Workers Compensation insurance fund for six years. However, probably Taylor's proudest achievement outside the logging woods has been the establishment of the Southern Loggers Co-op.

"We started the Southern Loggers Co-op with nine members who put up $5,000 each to help get it started," Taylor said. "Besides myself, there was Mickey Hawkins, Jimmy Carter, Tommy Frazier, Bryan Mullins, Dean Tyler, James Nutt, Tommy Netterville, and Kerry McManus who died a couple years ago."

"We now have over six hundred members and ten fueling stations in operation with seven more on the drawing board," Taylor noted with pride. "The Co-op members now are using about two million gallons of diesel a month when they are working. The loggers who are members of the co-op have an average savings of $.15 to $.20 a gallon."

"I believe that we will be able to expand our Southern Logging Co-op nationally into states with a significant forest industry," Taylor stated.

"We also have a discount program with Pharmacy Services on medicine and are working on insurance savings programs," Taylor added. "We think that we will soon have in place a fleet account with a major tire manufacturer logging equipment tires."

"During my four year tenure with the American Logging Council, I want to do everything I can to help make things better for the loggers," Taylor concluded. "That means not just surviving but also making a profit."

Taylor is married to the former Sharon Burnham of Jonesboro. They have two daughters, Sandy and Joanna, and four grandsons. He is a 1963 graduate of Calvin High School in Winn Parish. continued.

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