Terry, I wouldn't leave the trees in but for a different reason. I put a huge pile of fresh green oak trees in the bottom of my new 1.5 acre stock tank for fish habitat. It rained, the tanin came out of the oaks, colored the water black and was absolutely lethal. Cows wouldn't drink it and wildlife wouldn't go near it. I tried stocking it and everything was dead within 30 minutes. I tried using huge amounts of chlorine to kill it and talked to a lot of "experts" but nobody had an answer. Tanin is used to cure pelts and is measured in parts per million. Serious stuff. Finally, I bought a pump and pumped until the pump threw a rod. Luckily, Texas summer took care of the remainder of the water. You can test wood by cutting a green piece, putting it in a bucket of rain water or other non chlorinated water and wait a week or so for the results. Put a couple of minnows in for a test. Just hope that it doesn't rain while you are testing. I lost the first year of use on my new pride and joy.
