If you just keep it alive, it occupies land. If you kill it, it will decompose. Hence the burying, right? Or am I missing something?
Theoretically it will decompose someday, but at the point where we have significantly less buildings I assume either other bad things have made this less of a concern, or we'll be advanced enough to recapture that carbon in other ways.
...but yes, if you're willing to "waste" the resources, just thoroughly burying wood away from air should also work.