Possible New Pond- Watershed and Site Selection??? - 08/09/09 02:30 PM
First post, but I have been lurking for a little while.
Here is the situation:
My family owns approximately 70 acres in Caldwell County, Texas over by the town called Delhi. We've had the place for over 10 years but have never really done anything with it other than let it go totally wild. It has extremely thick brush and some incredibly tall trees. The soil is pretty sandy, but there is this thick red clay when you get down a little ways. We know because when the co-op ran power out to our place they widened the easement and there was red clay-like mud everywhere.
My goal, if possible, would be to try and build a 2-5 acre pond on our place for fishing and attracting wildlife. I don't know if we have enough watershed to accomplish that goal, but maybe we do. There is a wet weather creek on the property area that concentrates a fairly significant amount of runoff during rain events. However, one concern is that just above the northwest corner of our property is a smaller pond that is probably cutting off some of the drainage we would otherwise receive.
Below are some topo maps and aerial photographs for you to take a look at:
These are some close ups. The property boundaries are in red.
The yellow line was where I thought a logical place for a dam would be given the topography of the property.
Here are some larger scale maps that hopefully show the upstream drainage area.
I have highlighted the low wet weather creeks with blue lines.
Also, I have already called the NRCS and I believe they said that for our area there is approximately a 10:1 acreage ratio for drainage to pond size. I am going to have them come out and take a look at our property as we get a little closer to getting this project off the ground. When I was talking to them, they said that a 2 acre pond would be very big for our area...
What do you pondmeisters think?
Thanks and I look forward to participating!
Here is the situation:
My family owns approximately 70 acres in Caldwell County, Texas over by the town called Delhi. We've had the place for over 10 years but have never really done anything with it other than let it go totally wild. It has extremely thick brush and some incredibly tall trees. The soil is pretty sandy, but there is this thick red clay when you get down a little ways. We know because when the co-op ran power out to our place they widened the easement and there was red clay-like mud everywhere.
My goal, if possible, would be to try and build a 2-5 acre pond on our place for fishing and attracting wildlife. I don't know if we have enough watershed to accomplish that goal, but maybe we do. There is a wet weather creek on the property area that concentrates a fairly significant amount of runoff during rain events. However, one concern is that just above the northwest corner of our property is a smaller pond that is probably cutting off some of the drainage we would otherwise receive.
Below are some topo maps and aerial photographs for you to take a look at:
These are some close ups. The property boundaries are in red.
The yellow line was where I thought a logical place for a dam would be given the topography of the property.
Here are some larger scale maps that hopefully show the upstream drainage area.
I have highlighted the low wet weather creeks with blue lines.
Also, I have already called the NRCS and I believe they said that for our area there is approximately a 10:1 acreage ratio for drainage to pond size. I am going to have them come out and take a look at our property as we get a little closer to getting this project off the ground. When I was talking to them, they said that a 2 acre pond would be very big for our area...
What do you pondmeisters think?
Thanks and I look forward to participating!