QUOTE (blackdog @ Aug 6 2017, 09:43 AM)
Not really, most of the oaks for ship building came from forests planted for that purpose and were replaced to provide more in a few decades time. We've lost a lot of woodland since wooden ships went out of fashion.
I don't think that's entirely right. Forests have been managed for at least a thousand years, but as I understand it trees weren't planted as such, it was more a case of managing what just happened to grow, and it wasn't until the Napoleonic wars and cruk oak was desparately scarce that woodland was planted as such.