The 10-year-old loblolly pines grew so tightly together that Cliff Clegg started the reforestation project on his 550-acre Tallapoosa County farm by cutting more than half of the trees. Last summer, he thinned again, cutting the density down from the original 900 trees per acre to 200 trees per acre.
“We really just did what the experts told us to do,” said Clegg, who this month was named the Governor’s Forestry Conservationist of the Year at the Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) annual banquet.
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