By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

Louisiana had one of the largest contingents of loggers at the American Logging Council 10th Annual Convention held in Maine September 23-25. By tradition, each year the annual meeting is held in the home state of the current ALC President. Steve Hanington, a fourth generation Maine logger served as 2005 President of the American Logging Council.

Members of both the Louisiana Logging Council and the Louisiana Loggers Association attended the meeting. Representing the LLC was its newly installed President, Michael Hawkins of Saline. Also attending was Jimmy Carter of Converse who was selected as 2004 Logger of the Year by the Council. Carter is beginning the first year of a two year term as Vice-President of the Council.

Immediate past President of the LLC, Travis Taylor and his wife Sharon also attended the meeting held on the upper northeast coast of the United States.

In the last five years, the annual ALC has moved from Beaumont, Texas, to Lake Tahoe in California, to Oregon, to Minnesota and then to Maine.

Representing the Louisiana Loggers Association which is headquartered in Winnfield were Tony McManus, Donald Carpenter and Cricket Lang. The LLA members added a little sight-seeing tour to their agenda by flying into Chicago, renting a vehicle and then driving through Canada on their way to the ALC meeting in Maine.

Also attending the September ALC conference representing the Louisiana Logging Council were Clyde Todd, executive director, and Tony Lavespere of Grant parish. Travis Taylor, the long-time Winn Parish logger who has attended the last five annual ALC national conferences told the Piney Woods Journal, "This conference was a little unusual in that after we got to Maine, the conference agenda changed. Steve Hanington and the Maine loggers had been working on getting us in to attend a town hall meeting that President Bush was holding while our Conference was going on."

"Steve and his host committee knew that there was a possibility that things would fall in place and we would be able to attend, but it was a sure thing till the day it happened," Taylor said in elaborating on the change in the ALC conference schedule. "After we got word that we could get tickets, we stood in line for four hours before we could get into the meeting. There were a lot of people waiting to get in so it was crowded. We had a space about the size of a wash tub to stand in for four hours."

"After we got in and the meeting started, the President talked about his Healthy Forest Initiative which he signed into law last December but is yet to be funded," Taylor noted. "Logging and forestry is probably the biggest industry in Maine, so anything that had to do with logging and forestry got everybody's attention. Plus, the President was aware that members of the American Logging Council were in attendance."

"After talking about logging and the Healthy Forest Initiative, the President went into his regular campaign speech about the war and the economy in general," Taylor pointed out. "It was an experience. Security was extremely tight."

The first efforts to organize an American Logging Council originated in Maine through the efforts of the Hanington family. The first executive director of the Council was Cheryl Russell, the sister of Steve Hanington the 2004 ALC President. Russell worked from her office in the Hanington family logging business and from her home in the early years of the ALC.

In July of 2001, Russell resigned as director to accept a position with a University in Maine as director of its Family Owned Business program. This program was designed to help perpetuate family owned businesses which had been the backbone of the Maine economy for generations. Russell has since accepted a position in the upper management of the University.

After Russell resigned in 2001, Danny Dructor of Cleveland, Texas was appointed Executive Director of the ALC and still holds that position. Under Dructor's leadership, the ALC has continued to move forward to represent the American Loggers nationwide.

The Maine ALC conference was sponsored by John Deere Timberjack, as was the AlC summer board meeting in Moline, Illinois. At the Maine ALC in September, John Deere Timberjack held an in-the-woods-demo to showcase some of their logging equipment including their new series of Cut-To-Length machines.

Apparently the Caterpillar Company has claimed the sponsorship rights to the ALC 2005 meetings as per the announcement made at the annual conference.

"Louisiana is dragging behind other logging states in implementing its Master Logger Certification program," Taylor, who was elected the Southern Regional Board of Directors delegate stated. "To me, this is a very important matter. The Master Logger Certification program is designed to certify that you not only have the Master Logger training and knowledge but you also totally implement the program on your logging job."

In past years, the ALC tradition has been for a Regional Director to move on up into an ALC officer position. When that question was posed to Taylor he responded, "I'll have to think long and hard about moving up into an officer position if I were selected. As the Southern Regional Director, a lot of work will be done through conference calls. Also, I will still continue to attend quarterly Board of Directors meetings."

"However, being an officer of ALC would require a lot more of my time," Taylor explained. "Up to this time, Louisiana has not had an officer of the ALC, and hosted the annual conference. That might be good, but at the same time I will have to look real hard at the situation if I were to be selected to become a national officer of the Council. And besides, there are a lot of other fine loggers in Louisiana probably a lot more qualified than I am to hold such an office."

"After all, I can't lose sight of the fact that first and foremost, I'm a log hauler and make my living cutting and hauling logs. That has to be a top priority although I will certainly continue to do everything I can for the American Logging Council," Taylor concluded.

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