What, if any, would be the detriment to burning a pile of dried saplings in the watershed of a 1/3 acre pond.
The pond has been dormant for years and is not stocked now. I will start heavy aeration next wk. for several weeks.
I have cut down several hundred 1 to 4 inch tallow and sweet gum trees from around and in the pond and drug them as far as I wish to up the hollow(about 50 yds.)
Does anyone have any first hand knowledge or scientific opinions of the long term consequences of the by-products of the burning?

thanks, Jim Burkes

burgermeister,

I'll take a shot at it...not scientific, however.

In our soils in East Texas we are generally deficient on Potash anyway and at worst you will be adding that to your system, which seems to me to be a good thing.

On the other hand, tallow trees are toxic to humans, even the smoke from them, so be careful. Just to be safe I don't think I would burn tallow trees in my drainage system and certainly not stand downwind from the burning.