Depends where you are.
In the northern boreal forests of North America, 80% of the forests' carbon is stored in the soil. When trees degrade, they degrade slowly and incompletely with a lot of the carbon being kept in sol instead of being released into the atmosphere. Also, the rate the trees grow and sequester carbon may be quicker than the rate which fallen organic matter degrades and releases carbon. (In the tropics things degrae so quickly that this doesn’t work, plus more carbon is released hence the crappy soils in the tropics compared to temperate climates).

That said, planting trees is not the only answer. Instead of wasting money on oil exploration, “clean” coal (a crock), wars, etc, we should be putting it to work looking for real energy alternatives. Either that or buy everyone Honda Accords and let us all battle it out.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 12:54, Reply)