johninky said:
Another thought: Don't beavers eat trees? If you just left it won't the beavers dismantle the tree this winter?
Beavers only eat the bark. If kkesler decides to leave the tree in the pond he's going to have to live with it a long time. The tree will decompose very ... very... very ... did I say Very? .... slowly underwater. My dad damned up a creek in Mississippi 30 years ago to make a small pond. The trees and stumps we left in the bottom of it are still there.
Some 'cajuns down here in Louisiana are still making a living dragging old cypress out of the swamp that were lost in the logging back in the '50s (they use a crane mounted on a barge to drag the wood to the surface). And check this guy out: Spending big bucks to get to old forests left in the bottom of hydroelectric reservoirs 50 or more years ago.
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/0919/083.html
By the way, I think the "Chain Saw Wielding Divers" mentioned in the arcticle use pneumatic chain saws. We use pneumatic reciprocating saws offshore to cut pipe underwater.
Some of my freinds do a little cutting with cheap (Wildthings favored) chain saws right at the surface to clear pirogue trails to duck blinds and deer stands down here after Katrina, but it is messy, dangerous work, hard on men and equipment. I don't recomend it. I would recomend an old (manual) crosscut saw if you have to try it.