[bryanlarsen]

Forests only store carbon when they're young -- mature forests are in a steady state, the rotting wood releases carbon at the same rate that it is absorbed by growing trees.

Mature forests also release methane, which is 25X worse a greenhouse gas than CO2.

[Sharlin]

This, however, ignores actively managing the forest by clearing dead trees. On the other hand, some amount of dead wood is really important to the forest ecosystem and should be left to rot.

[dncornholio]

Would cutting the trees before they can mature won't solve these problems? Plant new trees and use the cut trees to build stuff and store co2.

[Sharlin]

Most trees planted in the world are already cut down too young, while they're still net carbon sinks. A tree planted right now is going to absorb carbon for at least a hundred years. And most timber is used in ways that releases all the stored carbon much sooner than it would happen in a natural forest. Basically the only reasonably sustainable ways to use timber is to either build something lasting out of it or bury it underground.