By JAMES RONALD SKAINS

"When I told my mother 20 years ago that I was going into the logging business she actually cried," Dennis Aucoin related to the Piney Woods Journal. "She couldn't believe that her son wanted to be an `ole logger."

"But in the last 10 years, I believe that loggers have become more accepted as real businessmen," Aucoin noted. "To survive in today's logging economy you have to be a pretty good business person. Plus, you have to be focused on Best Management Practices and continuing education under our Master Logger program."

Not only is Dennis Aucoin the new State President of the Louisiana Loggers Council, but he has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Clinton Bank & Trust for several years. In addition, Aucoin is member of the prestigious area-wide Dixie Business Development which is focused on helping start-up business ventures in the Florida parishs in southeast Louisiana.

Aucoin, who went into the logging business in 1979 after a couple years working at the old Guilbeau-Kennedy stockyards in Baton Rouge, recalled his early years in the business.

"It actually took me 10 years to learn the business and begin to make a profit. Unfortunately, my Mom didn't live long enough to see me become successful in the business. In fact, when she was in the hospital with cancer, I remember stopping by to see her on my way back from delivering a load to the mill in my log truck.

"During those tough years of getting started, Dennis would come home many weeks almost in tears because after he paid all his logging expenses, he didn't have any money for us," Becky Aucoin, Dennis' wife and high school sweetheart confided to the Journal. "Fortunately for us, I had a good job with a finance company and we were able to survive those years."

Becky, from nearby Zachary, attended Sillman Institute in Clinton while Dennis attended Clinton High school. Becky's Dad was a barber and her mother was a chemist at a plant in Baton Rouge, which gave no hint to Becky's apparent business acumen.

Becky it seems wears about four hats in the Aucoin family operations. First, she is the mother of three boys, Dennis, Jr., 17, Michael, 14 and William, age 4. Becky and Dennis dated for five years before they got married 18 years ago.

Not only does Becky serve as office manager for Slaughter Logging but she is also the manager of the Aucoin's newly opened Chevron Food Mart and Truck Stop in Clinton that employs 28 people, including the Aucoin boys from time to time.

In addition, Becky and Dennis have operated Service Oil & Gas distribution business for several years which specializes in providing service to about 500 farmers, loggers, and small gas stations in the area.

"I found out during those first 10 years in the logging business that the harder I worked, the luckier that I got," Aucoin explained the route that brought the Aucoins to owning and operating four businesses in the historic old town of Clinton, the parish seat of East Feliciana, about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. "Although, I operate my land and timber-buying business separate from my logging business, without the logging business, I couldn't be very successful buying land and timber."

"My objective in buying land and timber is to provide security in the future for my family," said Aucoin, who has lost both his Mom, step-Dad, father and brother in recent years. "I feel like the best way to secure the future financially for my family is to have enough land and timber so that if necessary they can cut 100 to 200 acres of timber each year."

During the last 12 years, Aucoin has accumulated nearly 2,000 acres of prime timber land in south Louisiana.

"I didn't really start making money in the logging industry until I was able to start buying some of my own timber to cut," Aucoin pointed out. "I'm convinced that most loggers now days should be buying some of their own timber so that they won't be totally dependent upon the timber companies to supply them tracts to cut."

"I do bid on some tracts that come up for sale, but if I can buy both the land and timber, I usually come out better," Aucoin explained. "I usually clear-cut the tract and replant it immediately. If I can afford to hold onto the land, I do but if I can't, I put it on the market for sale."

Aucoin pointed out that it usually costs him about $200 per acre to properly site-prep a tract and replant after clear-cutting. He also noted that one tract of land near Ville Platte cost him and a partner nearly $300 per acre to site-prep and replant.

"I actually had two starts in the logging woods," Aucoin explained of his early days in the logging business. "My uncle, James W. Thomas was in the logging business. When I was 13 and 14, I worked with him marking the logs for length after the trees were on the ground."

"I was driving one of his log trucks before I was old enough to get a drivers license," Aucoin recalled. "One of the guys at the mill knew my Mom and called her and found out my age, so that was the end of my early logging career."

"Later on, my uncle helped me get started in the business," said Aucoin, who was LFA Logger of the Year in 1992, nominated by Kevin Kast of Cavenham Industries. "We set up the business as Slaughter Logging because we lived in the little community of Slaughter on my grandfather's place just south of Clinton."

"My uncle was my partner when we started, although he didn't work on my job as he was still operating his own log job," said Aucoin, who was also Georgia-Pacific's Outstanding Logger in 1995. "We started out cutting hardwood for Jackson Hardwood Lumber Company. They had a skidder and a knuckleboom loader that they let me take up the notes on. They would hold out the payments out of my checks, which didn't leave me much money."

"But it was a start, although you couldn't haul much hardwood during the winter time, Aucoin pointed out. "I got into pine logs just so that I could work year around."

"When Becky and I got married, Uncle James gave us his half of Slaughter Logging as a wedding present," Aucoin recalled fondly. "I didn't really leave my logging jobs for any real period of time until I started taking the LSU Ag-Center Leadership course. My cell phone bill really skyrocketed when I took some time out of the logging woods."

The LSU Ag-Leadership course consumed most of Aucoin's free time for the years of 1996 through 1998. The Leadership Course, in which Aucoin was the first Logger to have ever participated in, culminated in a trip to the Far East including Singapore. Pictures of Dennis Aucoin at the airport in Viet Nam with Vietnamese children appeared in the local newspaper.

Aucoin, who has received several Timber Harvest Excellence awards from American Interstate Companies, has a real love for children and those in need. He has been very active for several years in the American Childrens Miracle Network, the Log-A-Load for Kids project and the Boy Scouts.

Some of Aucoin's involvements with children seem to come from the personal experience of having a handicapped brother.

"Jack was only 4-feet, eight inches and weighed about 80 pounds, although he lived to his late 20's," Aucoin stated. "He had a tumor near his spine which was inoperable that physically handicapped him, although he did have a four-wheeler on which he spent a lot of his time. He and my Mom were very very close. After my Mom passed away, Becky and I took care of him."

Aucoin, who earned his Master Logger's certificate in 1997, has been on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Forestry Association for a number of years before becoming the year 2000 President of the Louisiana Logging Council which is a sister organization to the LFA.

The Journal asked Aucoin about the timing of his becoming the point man for the LLC during rough times in the logging industry.

"There is no doubt that we are facing some tough challenges in the logging business," Aucoin acknowledged. "We've got not only quotas to be concerned about but also the big cloud hanging over us from the EPA on harvesting permits which is a ridiculous idea. I know people around here in the sand and gravel business who have to wait a year to get a mining permit."

"If I can help loggers to get better at what they do and become more professional," said Aucoin, "I will be pleased with my time as head of the Logging Council." He has been an officer and director in the LLC since its inception.

During 1998, Aucoin was heavily involved in the production of a Logging Safety Video for OSHA and the Louisiana Department of Labor. Aucoin and his Slaughter Logging crews not only demonstrated the "safe" way to log but also the "unsafe" way.

Slaughter Logging and Dennis Aucoin provide their employees with two weeks paid vacation, annual raises, health insurance, and a retirement program. The turnover at Slaughter Logging is very low, needless to say.

"I wouldn't mind working for myself," Aucoin quipped as he explained the details of his logging personnel portfolio. "Here in this area, I not only have to compete with the local job market but also with the Baton Rouge labor market. There is no doubt that a lot of people prefer working in the woods to a manufacturing plant, but I still have to be competitive."

It is less than an hour's drive from the Clinton area to the refineries and chemical plants along the Mississippi river in the Baton Rouge area. All of Slaughter Logging personnel are trained in first aid courses as well as CPR.

Becky and Dennis Aucoin are two very busy people but their accomplishments are many and varied. In addition to their business activities and participation in forestry organizations such as the LFA, LLC, and LSU Forestry Club, they are also sponsors of numerous events in the area such as Ducks Unlimited, Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasant Forum, Little League sports, and Christian organizations.

Along the way, in Dennis' quest to raise the status of "Loggers" in southeast Louisiana, Aucoin has found time to serve as local Lions Club President for three years being the youngest President in Club history his first year.
Aucoin, who spent many hours running log loaders over the years on Slaughter Logging jobs, has been very successful in log loading competition.

"I didn't know how I was going to do when we went to the Kentucky Wood Expo held in Bowling Green in 1993," Aucoin acknowledged.

"But all those hours sitting on my loader paid off as I came in first in the competition."

Aucoin is also an LSU baseball fan holding season tickets.

"I don't have time to go to World Series unless the Tigers make it into the finals," Aucoin pointed out. Hopefully, the Tigers will advance to the finals in the year 2000 Series in Omaha and the Aucoins will find the time to make the trip for yet another LSU championship.