Not the OP, but one could make the argument that if forests are replanted (and they are in the US) that young trees may sequester carbon faster than old trees. Here is an interesting article: https://icp.giss.nasa.gov/research/ppa/2001/anwar/
From a carbon perspective, it may even be desirable to periodically harvest trees (not just better than oil/gas), but I think a lot more research needs to be done.
Thank you for this explanation. Seems weird that someone thought to downvote me for asking a simple question, because at face value, CO_2 is released from either source and one might intuitively think that chopping down a source of CO_2 sequestration is counter productive, but you addressed that concern adequately.
From a carbon perspective, it may even be desirable to periodically harvest trees (not just better than oil/gas), but I think a lot more research needs to be done.