Adapting to change makes logging a success
Adaptability, that’s what Casey Durand says is vital for the modern-day logger to be.
Durand should know as he has adapted his business, Central Timber Services, through the years to maintain an operations excellent enough to become the 2024 Outstanding Louisiana Logger.
Durand is a third generation logger from Pollock. His father, Owen Durand Jr., started logging in the 1960s after dropping out of high school. Owen Jr. said he made up his mind and told the school principal he didn’t like high school and was going to quit.
“The next day I was up at 4 a.m. and went to work with my father,” Owen Jr. said.
Adapting to change started when Owen Jr. was operating Durand & Durand Logging. One of the changes he went through that was notable was the addition of the grapple hook skidders.
“I thought we’d died and gone to heaven with the grapple skidder,” Owen Jr. said. “We didn’t have to hook up cables anymore.”
Owen Jr. retired only a few years ago and is enjoying retirement, spending time with his wife, Peggy, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Using a grapple skidder was a good change, Casey Durand said.
“It probably doubled his production,” he said.
Technology has improved for loggers over the past decades, Casey Durand said, allowing loggers to be more adaptable under various conditions.
“We have a different array of equipment,” Durand said. “We run thinnings, which takes a smaller cutter. We have equipment with bigger tires in case you run into wetter ground. It might be the difference in working or not working if you can work wetter areas.”
Although technology has advanced considerably, Durand said other changes have made the industry more of a challenge. Among those challenges are insurance and shrinking profit margins. The financial side has gotten more challenging.
“It used to be you would say, ‘I’m going to work really hard and make it,’ ” Durand said. “Now you have to be smart and responsible in all phases.”
Durand has worked hard for much of his life. His brother Brett Durand works with him operating a loader, but like Casey can operate any of the equipment in the woods. Brett said he started working in the woods at a young age. Brett Durand said, and Casey readily agrees, they were taught by the best.
“Started with Pawpaw (Owen Sr.) when I was 16,” Brett Durand said, adding that the brothers work well together. “It helps to know what you’re doing. You learn from the same man and build the same habits.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to learn from anyone else.”
Casey has other relatives working in his business. Chris Durand, an uncle, trims branches on logs that have been loaded before they leave the set. His sister Tonya Clark is his “assistant and CPA.”
“Yeah, she loves it when I call her my assistant,” Durand said, ribbing his sibling.
“I do everything that’s important,” Clark wryly said during an afternoon visit in her kitchen.
“They know how to push that button,” Peggy Durand chimed in (Peggy is the one who takes care of “the entire family,” Casey acknowledged).
“My phone never stops ringing,” Clark said.
“They can’t do it without her,” Peggy added.
A family gathering at Clark’s home is thick with sarcasm, ribbing and plenty of laughter as the family easily shifts from heartfelt appreciation to picking on one another. Their affection for one another is ever present, even through teasing comments and chuckles.
During that visit on a oppressively hot Louisiana summer day, Clark and her daughter Abrey (a nurse for the past two years), Owen Jr. and Peggy, and Casey Durand’s daughter Laken Durand-Fountain join in a chorus of ribbing and laughter and playing with Durand-Fountain’s son Jacob Keith Fountain Jr., or “JJ,” as he does what most toddlers do in covering as much territory as possible.
Conversations switch from Owen Jr.’s time in the logging business and the accolades he’s achieved and a review of articles in which he was featured, to picking on each other to an explanation why Durand-Fountain went into teaching.
“I watched him work hard (when she was growing up),” Durand-Fountain said. “That’s why I’m a teacher.”
Durand’s son Logan hasn’t followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. He said Logan works for Halliburton.
“He’s worked (in the woods with Durand) a few summers,” he said. “He went to LSU and chose a different path. I don’t hold that against him at all.”
Logging is a tough life, he said. The younger generation is moving in different directions.
“We’re not gray-headed at 50 for no reason,” he said.
As difficult as the industry can be sometimes, Durand said he’s happy he has done well, at least well enough that his colleagues recognized him with awarding him 2024 Outstanding Louisiana Logger.
“We try to do a good job every job. That’s the way we’ve always done it,” Durand said. “We’re not the biggest, but we get good results.”
Durand said he is appreciative of the award, noting that he’s certain there are others who “probably deserve it more than me.”
“It’s not anything you strive for, but it’s nice. It makes you feel like some of the long days are worth it.”
