Oh man, this brings me back. I'm sitting a block away from the old Meebo office right now. I'm still bitter about Google buying out and killing the app.
> trees just move it temporarily from the atmosphere to the tree and then from the tree back to the atmosphere once the tree dies (through the process of decay or burning).
Your point stands, but if the trees are used for construction or carpentry, it would move the CO2 release quite a long time away from now.
Cutting down old trees, using them efficiently (not burning them), and planting new ones works well to sequester carbon for a long time.