I'm afraid that the circular reference issue is unavoidable because Forest Pack is dependent on the surface properties, so to then make the surface's material's dependent on the Fp object would create a problematic loop.
There is an easy workaround though. Just duplicate the surface as an instance and apply the V-Ray Distance Texture material to that. The surface that Forest Pack uses can be set so that it doesn't render (and I usually set it to display as box too so it doesn't cause confusion in the viewports)
Please see the attached sample scene for a simplified setup.
I hope that helps,
Paul