Absolutely! It became a fad back in the 1980s/1990s to let these forests and brushlands “revert to nature”.
And so they have. Now, it cames as a shock to inner city urbanites and wannabe “homesteaders” that nature ain’t nice. In fact, it’ll do its level best to kill you given the smallest chance.
This is true though being in Oregon at that time let me assure you there was a good reason (logging company greed and housing boom had led to widespread clearcutting and deforestation, leading to bad erosion problems and wildlife turning up in the towns). The bad part needed to be shut down; the problem is the pendulum swung too far in the other direction.
Eyup! Neither prospect is all that great. To say the least.
Monoculture is great for business but horrible for the health of forests.
Well, yes… right up to the point when you get infested by an insect or fungus with a predilection for your monocultured species… better still if it has previously undergone inadvertent (?) selection for pesticide resistance.
Well then you just have a reason to cut it all down as fast as possible before it becomes useless or catches fire 
But that was exactly my point… in the short sighted pursuit of making more money, they’ve screwed up our forests and caused themselves big problems now.