Trees are a step that can either lead to permanent sequestration, or can lead to open-cycle sequestration, both of which are better than nothing. The carbon in

Trees are a step that can either lead to permanent sequestration, or can lead to open-cycle sequestration, both of which are better than nothing. The carbon in a tree can get pulled out of the equation for decades while it grows, and partly slow-released as it rots on the forest floor, and partly adapted into the soil, some of which will eventually become a sequestered fossil fuel deposit. Alternatively, part of the tree can become food, or lumber, or paper, and whatever those eventually decay into may be, at least in part, things other than methane and CO2, safe in the ground as permanent sequestration. Trees aren't a panacea, but they're a tool we dare not discount out of hand.