Our 4 acre lake is built on level farm land so it is all dug out. There are only two things that can be done with the dirt: haul it away or pile it up. We have done both. We started the lake in 2000 and will finish it this spring. We gave away dirt to anyone that would pay to dig and haul it away.

Piling the dirt up also worked well for us. We built three large berms around three sides of the lake. These berms are about 50' wide at the base and 10' wide at the top. One berm is about 600' long, another 350' and the third is about 400'. They block the view and sounds of a busy state highway, a large auto dealership and an Interstate highway.

Another thing we did was to make lots of islands and channels with a tracked backhoe. The backhoe made the channels and piled the dirt up as islands that are about 15-20' high. These are rough islands with native grass and wildflowers on them. This gives us lots of edge for fish and lots of waterfowl and other birds nest on the islands.

All of this allowed us to get the lake dug much cheaper than it would have cost otherwise. Still, it's a lot of money for a hobby.

Norm Kopecky