I live near the coast an hour south of Tampa, Florida.
In my neighborhood people are cutting down the slash pines that used to cover my neighborhood.
It is also a common practice to cut off the lower limbs. I believe that that practice makes the tree more likely to get blown over in a hurricane. People with money can be very destructive.
I planted four seedlings in my large backyard that are now about thirty to forty feet tall.
I often use the needles as mulch after chopping the needles up with a lawnmower.
The pine cones are a large and plentiful problem.
If you have a lawn for example, grass is not going to grow well at all under the pine tree. Pine trees suck up lots of water and the needles are naturally inhibitory to grasses.
A pine tree as it matures becomes increasingly susceptible to wood rot. The inner core can be completely dead and it is not apparent at all visually. I have had a pine go from grand and healthy to a dead stick in weeks. That same VA house 10 years or so prior to my ownership, had a corner of the house destroyed by a fallen “healthy”pine. My home in GA had 3 pines in the backyard that I eventually removed to get rid of the mud around them. My neighbor had a pine tree decide to die overnight and a month or 2 later the pine snapped and fell across our fences and into the green belt. If it had fallen the other way, one our two houses would probably have been hit by the pine.
The tree farmer in the OP article stated he began culling peach trees and planting pine in the 1970s. His oldest pines will be well into prime maturity now. It's not mentioned in the article but I'm sure that he is methodically culling a fraction of the trees each year and replanting a new tree. A dead tree is not good for much more than firewood. A healthy mature tree culled out is good for higher value uses. More $$$.
why does this forum so often have such bias against the rich? The one just a few days ago about the guy in Missouri who cut down some shitty pine trees (it’s a pine tree trigger) that were on a national trail blocking his view had posters wishing he’d lose his home and be fined a million Austin Powers dollars...for the weed of trees ...not like some Methuselah live oak or sequoyah were lost......freeper scold trigger pull is always just a an ounce or so...
“The pine cones are a large and plentiful problem.”
Ron thru a chipper and they make great mulch.
Pine cones are great for starting your fire. Gather those that have a lot of pine sap on them. Give the other cones to a senior citizens center. Some hobbyists like to make pine cone wreaths.
Crafters buy pine cones...