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How exactly are forests absorbing carbon?

Shouldn’t this carbon be released when the tree eventually dies and decomposes? I’d expect it to be carbon neutral over its lifespan?

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The vast majority of carbon in trees is pulled from the atmosphere during growth. A dead tree is still made of organic molecules, which have carbon in them. So trees are not "Carbon Neutral", they're "Carbon Negative" until the wood is burned, or it decomposes enough to become crude oil and then, well...

That’s my point. It decomposes, at which point the co2 it was made up of is released back into the environment.

But not necessarily into the _atmosphere_.

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