Retention pond question

A school being newly build somewhat near my house has a retention storm drain/pond at the edge of the property seen from the street. When I looked there, they had large diameter logs in the pond(no rainwater yet) bark off and sections at about 3 feet to 8+. Wonder if anyone would know why they would put these there? Sorry no pictures its not a place where I could park.
I know logs are preserved in water but this defeats that purpose as they arent submerged for decades. I used to clear overgrowth in ponds during the summer about 10 years ago as a school summer help job but never saw full sized logs like this.

Another thought is the obvious: they wanna get rid of them but not pay the fee. Let them rot that way I guess...

 

That's for the new event they've added to the Stihl Timbersports series: the "Deadhead Fishing Derby".

 

Hard to say without photos but they may be using the logs as energy dissipaters to slow the incoming storm water during heavy flash rain falls. This reduces erosion.

 

Everywhere you look there are retention ponds here. (Township/DEP mandated) But you never see water in them...
Just another rain tax...

Are the logs stacked or arranged in any order? Randon? Dumped?
I've never seen logs left in a retention pond...

 

Did it look similar to this?

 

I thought about this one as it would have displaced water coming in elsewhere but same sort of thing as you're saying. I might have to take a look at it again but you really can only see it if you drive by it but can't park, its on a main street with no extra space. Its not a huge pond but deep as the school resides on a hill higher and further up from the street.

 

Yeah sorta but they were at the bottom and it wasn't like they were lining the pond but just in a corner.

 

Well we hadn't had rain in exactly a month, then it rained one day very lightly in the morning.

Me either. I thought of one idea and that would have been to have the logs absorb water so that the level COULD go down but not that it would be anything significant for that reason. But it was just maybe 10 -12 logs at the bottom of this thing seen from the street. I actually saw the logs before they were down there and they weren't cut into pieces yet. Longer 15 foot sections.

 

I'd have to say its to prevent erosion...or it works like a gold sluice box. Separating the heavy/solids out of the water and lets the clear water out

 

Well this is all your fault then...slacker...hoarder wanna be...these things should look like this by now :stacke:

 

Haha brenndatomu it was all fenced in and all that! I got curious to tell you that much but I could tell they were destined for use but not sure what.

 

Easiest way for an answer is to get ahold of someone at the school, no? Board member, etc.

Probably starting lumberjack games as an added curriculum?

 

You might not be far off. I do work for the school district so it's possible I could ask. Lots of tradesmen here so I thought Id run into someone who works as a landscaper or part of maintenance who might know something about this.

 

damm picture rule but damm I look beanpole. But like I said... weird arrangement for these logs but there is a ramp to the left.....

 

Not what I was thinking. Not to sure what is going on there.

 

Yeah, that's weird...really does look like someone just backed up with a load n dumped it.

 

They look pretty good to me as logs go. Nice and straight but who knows of their purpose...but shame that getting them may be more trouble than what its worth.

 

They were actually on the lawn as you can see it at the top of the pic but there wasn't a lawn there until recently. But they were longer so the pieces must Have been just cut to make them easier to move. Just knowing disposal can be difficult and can be an unneccesary expense.

 

Structure for fish?

Although I imagine when they decompose they will create sediment which is not good in a retention pond.

 

Well its bio material, but I doubt fish will be in here...however if they did put pond plants in, might have a benefit but this is really mostly for rainwater. Anything to keep flooding at a minimum. I was actually working at a different school district when this happened but they truly closed school halfway through the day because it was raining so hard and flooding the area. The cause? A very high tide that came while rains were accumulating so nothing was going out. So this put a measure for schools like this to put more rain storage in areas where drains may flood with no outlet.

In fact before I went to work, my dad was still working for the district as well. That same day he had already left and I was still at home, Saw the rain and Im thinking something not right. So I went to turn on the septic pump, sure enough the water was over the tank where the pump was engulfed in water. So it just pumped until I got home to keep the water out. If I hadn't done this, the pump would have fried out and sewage would have overflowed by the front of the house. By the time I got done I saw how bad the flooding got, trees were sitting in at least a half a foot of water. Parents live on a bit of a hill and the tide had not gone out yet. But at least it stopped raining.