Try playing as the Luso's (they get the biggest forest bonuses IIRC). Soon you will come to love the trees as your army gets an easy victory every time it catches some poor civilized schmuck inside of one...

when you can surprise the enemy by suddenly emerging on the flank and unleashing a hail of javelins, it becomes very satisfying and you will begin to actively look for trees to be on the battlemap. If you only ever play as one faction you are IMO really missing out on a lot of the EB gaming experience.