From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:
FOREST. By the English law, a forest is a circuit of ground properly under
the king's protection, for the peaceable living and abiding of beasts of
hunting and the chase, and distinguished not only by having bounds and
privileges, but also by having courts and offices. 12 do. 22. The
signification of forest in the United States is the popular one of an
extensive piece of woodland. Vide Purlieu.
Of course not, you need only drive around the managed forests in Oregon to see some. (and it really tweeks your brain to see a forest where all the trees are exactly the same age for the most part!)
Before anyone freaks out, note that (as ChuckMcM said) all these trees are almost exactly the same size/age. This isn't an old-growth forest -- it's a lot closer to harvesting a field of corn.
Kinda cool and creepy at the same time. It sets of my creepy vibe a bit to have such an efficient machine for destroying living things. For a tree, it doesn't seem so bad, but what would you think if there was a slaughterhouse machine that processed cows or chickens like that? Hell, for all I know there already is one. I know my food has to come from somewhere, but I don't think I'd like to watch a machine like that at work.
I've seen a lot of tree farms in Scotland and they were quite insane, literally impossible to walk through in some cases because the trees were so closely spaced, with no other vegetation at all (how they manage to get enough light to live I have no idea). Very, very, unpleasant places.
I wasn't sure if that sort thing counts as a forest though, or whether there was some implication of a more varied natural ecosystem.
[That's an extreme example and there are better sorts of managed woodlands of course, e.g. Japan is famous for them.]
We only have a tiny amount amount of "old growth" forests in Scotland - about 1% of land area with a total of almost 18% being forested, the difference being the "tree farms" (not what they are called here, but that's really what they are).
There are also attempts to restore wildlife as well - the White Tailed Sea Eagle has been re-introduced as well as beavers in one location. Some people even want to have wolves and lynxes brought back...
Unfortunately game keepers and land owners try as hard as they can to sabotage these reintroduction programs. Reintroduction of White Tailed Eagles into the east of Scotland has been set back somewhat by the destruction of the nest this year: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-228725...
I don't know what the Norwegians must think; they give us these birds as part of a big expensive reintroduction program and then a bunch of rich toffs go around shooting them and destroying the nests because they think they might disturb their grouse shoots.
That's a real shame - I think I saw a White Tailed Eagle on a back road in Fife and it was huge - it was sitting at the side of the road and took off just before I got to it.
These would be known as 'forests' at the larger scale, but they're actually a collection of Forestry Commission plantations. I agree they are very very unpleasant places, and it's incredibly eerie to walk through a dark woodland where nothing grows at ground level, no birds sing in the trees and there's no sound whatsoever. Thankfully most of these have reached the end of their lives (the timber is ready to be harvested) and modern planting (where they're replaced) is more enlightened and aims for a diverse ecology.
The Forest of Dean is an interesting planting. It's mostly an older trees - they were planted in the late 1700's to provide timber for the next set of wooden warships, once they matured: 150-200 years after planting!
That said, I'm really excited about this. The project is removing blight and contributing much needed tax dollars to the city.