ALABAMA — The economic loss in the region around a pulp mill that closed in Alabama this spring could reach nearly $7 billion, according to a new study circulating around Southern statehouses and D.C. The Coosa Pines mill was relatively small compared with the containerboard mills that have shuttered throughout the pine belt and left timber growers without buyers for much of their wood. Forester Tom Richardson and Larry Wall, a financial adviser, crunched the numbers to show how economic losses extend beyond the more than 250 mill workers who lost jobs. …The bulk of the monetary loss is the mills’ direct economic impact over 10 years, but they also tallied losses in a region encompassing about a million acres southeast of Birmingham from which the mill had sourced wood. …They added the impact to loggers making fewer, longer trips to more distant mills. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]