I have never heard of having water quality problems because of burned material on the pond bottom. If buring is the most reasonable way to get weeds and small brush out of the pond I say burn away. otherwise you will have that stuff clogging up your trolling motor for years to come. I would make sure I left the cedar trees, bass love them. Hardwood trees will last longer than soft woods obviously. I have seen guys go crazy with structure, so crazy if defeats the purpose. I use structure to attract fish to a certain area. Structure and habitat are important to a fishery but understanding balance between predator and prey, proper stocking and management/fertilizer/feeding techniques are more important in southern ponds. I can take you to some lakes that are virtually void of struture that have very nice fish populations. As I have learned from Dave Willis cover is critical for bass in northern ponds. so the amount of aquatic weeds and structure you have is much more important up north.

I would probably place several (2-3) nice brush piles/blow downs per acre. concentrate on putting them around drop offs and points in the lake. use the natural lake features and enhance them with trees. also think about adding some gravel beds- bluegill love to spawn on them

for a 10 acre pond try to keep structure around at the 6-8 foot mark be sure to place plenty of structure here, or maybe slightly deeper. larger bass will move down deep in summer months and sit right above the thermocline. having some trees in this area will help locate those hawgs. i would not worry about putting trees in the deep 23 foot water.

mark deep structure will cheap duck decoys. they are tough, last a long time and will attract a few ducks in the fall.