you are correct dick,if you are talking about burning but if you pyrolise the wood you end up with charcoal and bury it as biochar it becomes carbon negative with the added advantage of improving the soil.
(the resulting woodgas would still be carbon neutral)

also if you get carbon monoxide as a byproduct - that is a fuel
you can add things to it to make gasoline.

in fact one method of collecting solar energy - uses a technique of stripping an oxygen atom from c02 see turning carbon dioxide into fuel
If this can be developed it certainly would be carbon negative.