Clyde Todd, executive director of the Louisiana Logging Council headquartered in Alexandria since its organization in 1996, has announced his retirement from the post effective October 1.

Todd, a graduate forester, is a former forest ranger with the USDA Forest Service, having served for 34 years in Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia.

Clyde will be retired but not inactive, as he takes a new position as manager of a new loggers organization, Southern Loggers Cooperative, headed by a group of Louisiana loggers who seek to establish cooperative purchasing for services, supplies, and equipment used in forestry.

The group is headquartered in Rapides parish, and will seek to enroll loggers in Louisiana and neighboring states for purchasing to reduce cost of operation, Todd said.

Travis Taylor of Goldonna, who recently completed a two-year term as president of the Louisiana Loggers Council, was elected president, and Glen Hinson of Livingston parish as vice president at an organizational meeting in late September.

Todd will be assisted by his wife, Mary Todd, who has wide experience in purchasing, having worked for the U.S. Forest Service, and for the Dubuis Hospital Systems, a national independent hospital services company.

Todd is a forestry graduate of Louisiana Tech University at Ruston. During his college career, he worked at the US Forest Service in Alexandria for two summers, and after graduation in 1957 went to work at the Catahoula Ranger District at Bentley. He served two years in the U.S. Air Force, in Alaska and Georgia, and upon his discharge he went to South Carolina from 1960 to 1962, at the Francis Marion National Forest. He later served as assistant Ranger at Angelina National Forest at Lufkin, Texas, as District Ranger at Davy Crockett National Forest at Crockett, Texas. In 1967, he became District Ranger at Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. In 1976, he returned as District Ranger at Catahoula District in the Kisatchie National Forest where he began work after graduation. During his tenure there, he hired Bobby Sebastian, the present District Ranger at Catahoula district. Todd served as District Ranger at Evangeline District from 1985 through 1990, when he retired.

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