Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Trees on a dam

Hi

I just posted an intro with some general info and I'd like to ask a renovation question here. Our pond is probably around 30 years old. As I said it's a ravine pond with a pretty tall dam (maybe 15 ft) and maybe twice as thick at the base and about 8ft wide at the top holding a 1/2 acre pond 10 ft deep in the middle. It has a number of trees growing in the dam which are up to 8 inches in diameter. Some pines, a sycamore or two, dogwoods, etc. typical Missouri mix. The question is should I take them out? I know leaving them may eventually cause leakage but will killing trees this large risk leakage also?

Dick

Dick, generally you ony cut trees that are 4" or less in diameter (measured at chest height) and leave the larger ones while hoping for the best.

Often times, a complete renovation of the pond is not all that expensive in your area, but choose who you hire to do that work VERY carefully as there are some very bad pond builders that are great at clearing fields in your area.

Rainman

I was hoping to run into you sometime being almost a neighbor. The pond was built by Kenny Nichols the father of a neighbor. He built 3 ravine ponds which are now on three adjacent properties but maybe they were all one acreage when he built them. I understand he is still in business. Anyway, they all hold water well which surprises me because the geology of the ravines around here is not promising-Roubidoux sandstone and not much clay. Maybe he knows what he's doing. We had some test holes dug on a place 2 miles from the pond place with similar terrain and the verdict was don't try it which is why we bought the pond place.

Other than the trees the pond seems in good structural shape-not much muck (few inches), clear with a slight tannic brown tinge from the woods, any bubbles stirred from the bottom do not smell sulfurous (don't smell at all-methane?) It really only has a water shield weed problem which I will ask about later along with some other items but I wanted to stick with one question at a time to keep things simple.

I suspected I shouldn't cut the big trees but I may have a chance at avoiding leakage because the dam seems pretty massive. I'll take out the small ones. Thanks for the advice and nice to meet you.

Dick

i had the same dilemma just before diving into my renovation....different kind of trees tho, black willows....shallow rooted for the most part, but also large, some over a foot across and 40 ft tall.....bottom line is i cut them all out and glad i did.

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FWIW, good luck richard.

If your ravine runs north and south, the west hillside usually has a pretty good, deep supply of yellow/red clay.

Methane is odorless, but I can promise you with the hardwoods in the watershed, there is a considerable amount of muck, the clarity is likely from acidic water given the pines in the watershed. (plus, our beloved ozark rock garden just ain't all that fertile..lol)