Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Removing trees?

Hi Y'all,
I'm new to this Forum & trying to learn a little about pond management. I have several questions for Y'all, if you don't mind.
We bought this little place in SW Indiana, in '03
as a retirement place, 13 acres w/ a 1 acre pond.
The house is late '70's and required some fixing-up. The grounds & pond had been way over planted
w/ shrubs, trees & flowers. But, it was empty for
about 3 yrs.

The pond is well stocked, it has Largemouth Bass, Large Blue- gills, & a few catfish.
We added 20 grass-carp, for the moss, & 1000
chub minnows for food. My sons came up for a weekend last year & caught Blue-gills big as a dinner plate.

We have trees all around the pond, above it, below it and on the dam. The pond does not appear
to be leaking as yet. Unless it gets really dry, there is always a little trickle of water over the spillway/overflow. During last Summer we went a couple months with very little rain and our pond as well a most of the neighbors' went down a bit, 4 or 5 ft.
Do I need to remove "all the trees" from the dam?
Upper side, next to the water, as well as lower
side, away from the water? We do get a big leaf-drop, in the pond every Fall. Is that a problem?

We haven't had any problem w/ algae but we did have a large growth of underwater moss, last summer. It appeared to die off as soon as the first hard frost/freeze. The pond has frozen over
all the way a few times this Winter, but it has been mild, and thawed pretty quickly.
We have about 3 small beds of cattails at different points around the pond. Should they be removed?

Is there anything you'd think I need to give attention to, besides getting the trees out of the dam?
Thanks for any help & suggestions.
'Til Later....
Old John

Old John,

Welcome to the forum. Its a great source for info and fun.

The trees in the dam can be a problem. The roots and the wind swaying the tree and loosening your soil can combine to be a big problem. Remove all the small ones. If there are very large trees, get a professional to make an assessment.

Also, a note...20 grass carp in one acre is a lot. I know some agencies recommend that kind of stocking rate, but its too many for the long haul. They will soon run out of stuff to eat and may cause you water quality problems.

Welcome to the board, Old John! You'll find a ton of useful information here. Dig in!

Like you, I bought acreage in SW Indiana with a pond. My pond was so grown up with willow trees along the banks that it was impossible to fish. Imagine a green wall built all the way around the pond. The first summer of ownership my boys and I cut and hacked the willow wall down to almost nothing. I'd read on this forum about how willow trees are among the most thirsty trees and I blamed them for contributing to a big evaporation loss. My pond is totally dependent upon runoff from a small watershed.

I haven't seen much of a difference in evaporation now that the willow trees are gone. That may be because we didn't have much rain later in the summer and I have only one summer of experience with the willow trees gone. I'm hoping that with all that leaf surface area gone, I'll see a reduction in evaporation through elimination of transpiration.

Like you, I get a large mess of leaves in the pond, but there isn't anything I can do about it since I have mature forest on the windward side of the pond. The experts here recommend keeping leaves out of the pond because they represent more organic material rotting and using up oxygen that the fish need.

Old John,
Trees on dam...don't remove trees larger than 4 inches diameter. Trim them. Smaller trees, remove. The dam is a water management structure, and has been engineered. Decaying root balls from big trees can compromise the structure.
Leaves decompose, adding to organic buildup on your pond's bottom. Aeration can help. Read up on that here, lots of threads, and you can call some our quality advertisers for advice specific to your situation. Go the to the resource guide for info.
Cattails are a problem, if you think they are. Otherwise, cattails don't pose big biological issues unless they cover most shallow water, and much pond periphery. So, it's really a personal choice, whether you like them or not.
The last piece of advice...go through this forum. There are thousands of posts, thousands of topics. You will be surprised and amazed at what you learn.
Plus, a subscription to Pond Boss magazine is a good idea, too. It keeps you up to date on all the latest, with timely information.

Bob,

With a small dozer and/or backhoe the root systems are easily removed of all but the largest, oldest trees and the soil repacked to restore the integrity of the dam. A pond builder in these parts swears that his biggest pond problems by far are leaks in dams caused by trees. That's partially because of our preponderance of pine trees in East Texas which keep their "leaves" year round and really sway and move in the winds. I love trees....especially large ones...but the only way I would leave a tree in the dam is if it was a "specimen" tree with unique characteristics.

My experience has been that most native trees larger than four inches in diameter have root balls too large to remove without compromising the integrity of most dams. I really struggled with the concept until a team of engineers explained it to me. They were looking at a project in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and trying to decide how to handle an old dam, whether to leave it, tear it down, or clean it up. The landowner was preparing the land for development within the next ten years, and wanted to get the engineering out of the way. The dam had a number of trees, hackberry, bois'd arc, elm and native cedar. There were big willows along the shore. The dam wasn't covered with trees, but there were enough to cause concern. As I listened, then asked questions, these three guys told me that trees could be removed, but to look at the drip line. Roots extend to the drip line of most trees. Removing the tree and its roots would leave a weak spot in the dam, akin to punching a hole in an inner tube. Patch it with other dirt, and that's what you have, a patched dam. Patches are weak links in the chain. For that particular dam, that would have meant 8-10 patches. As I look around the countryside, if a dam has trees, it usually has more than one. So, that's how I have come to the conclusion to trim trees bigger than 4 inches in diameter. I am certainly open to more knowledge than this particular brain possesses, and would embrace anything I have missed. In the mean time.....

Interesting discussion...reminds me that the more I know, the more I realize the less I know.

Well, the theory gets a big test in my renovated pond. I removed some 12 inch plus pine trees, roots and all and repacked the area. So far it is holding water fine whereas before it wouldn't hold water...due mainly to structural damage by beavers or other critters.

I love this forum!