You would be surprised how much damage black bears do to trees. I would much rather see a black bear rug in my trailer than try to clean and cook a spotted owl. (Lets see, they taste a lot like ...)
You are right about forests taking work. I'm just a retired engineer/teacher, but my partners in this little property are foresters. They are continually walking the property, monitoring the crop trees and non-crop trees that provide the much needed nitrogen. Id'ing trees for thinning, (trees that won't grow to maturity or that are blocking other trees from the sun).
We love this little undeveloped piece of heaven, and even though the highest and best use is probably one to two acre housing tracts (it is along a major highway), we will probably keep most of it out of development and used it for annual camping and a place we can sharpen the shooting eye.