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Chalk up another honor for Texas logger Tommy Burch, who recently was inducted into the Texas Forestry Hall Of Fame (TFHF)—the first logger in the state to be so honored. The TFHF honors both living and deceased persons for their “substantial and lasting contributions to forestry and forest conservation.” The elite group currently consists of only 31 members.

Burch, 70, of Brookeland, logged for more than 40 years before backing away from the family business, B&W Logging Contractors, a few years ago. He was the first, and still only, logger to serve as president of the Texas Forestry Association. Burch sought to better unify loggers, give them a voice, promote their cause, and enhance public perception of the industry.

These convictions drove him to help found the Texas Logging Council, which he chaired originally in the early ‘90s. The council helped bring about a “fully mechanized” workers’ compensation insurance rate for Texas loggers. Along with others, Burch helped TLC raise thousands of dollars for the Lufkin State School to build custom wheelchairs for handicapped children.

At the national level, Burch was among a small group of loggers that helped give life to the American Loggers Council in 1994. A political activist and highly respected leader, Burch was named Texas Logger of the Year in 1992. In 2002 Timber Harvesting magazine selected his company as its Logging Business of the Year.

As a TFHF member, Burch joins the ranks of the state’s elite forest industry figures, among them W.T. Carter, Glenn Chancellor, Joe Denman, W. Goodrich Jones, David Kenley, John Kirby, Ernest, Joseph and Melvin Kurth, Robert Maxwell, Thomas and Arthur Temple, Clyde Thompson, Brady Wadsworth, and Jim Webster.