I have a fair collection of Black Walnut trees, and a couple of them are right on the shoreline of the proposed pondsite. Yep, and boy are they fruitful. I know that the Walnut exudes a peculiar toxin, a decent summary to follow:

The subject trees are gonna release a seemingly significant amount of fruit into the pond. I surely hate to remove any more of these beauties from the site. I do intend to stock the pond with fish, likely the standard BG/LMB/CC blend (still TBD). What are the ramifications of leaving the trees as is.
(the only related post I could find follows...is this issue still a mystery? \'05 Walnut post )

Brettski:

I will give you my limited knowledge of Walnut toxicology:

1) My Grandpa used to soak Black Walnut husks in a bucket of water for somewhere between a couple of days to a week. He poured the resulting liquid on the ground and the irritative effects would cause earthworms to surface for bait collection. (This fact seems most pertinant to your query.)

2) Black Walnut sawdust should not be used as horse bedding because when mixed with horse urine, it gives off a toxic gas. (Just a seemingly useless piece of trivia.)

3) The treeline North of my pond (75 to 200 feet away from the water's edge) contains a half a dozen or so large (12" dbh or bigger) Black Walnut trees. These cause a small amount of BW leaves and nuts to reach the pond, which so far have not caused any problems I am aware of. (All things in moderation.)

Theo,
As I surfed in search of walnut stuff, I came across more than one site that eluded to Native American Indians using the husk of the fruit to create a product that is thrown into still waters. One site noted strategically locating the improvised toxin device in a washout or hole in the bottom of a stream. The toxin apparently stuns or kills the fish and sends them belly up for harvest. The implications were directed to smaller waters, such as creeks and streams.

I thank you for that post for I knew nothing about this & have a few small Black Walnut trees that had sprung up within 30ft, of my pond & was going to leave them there to grow. I had even considered planting a few for there are tons of nuts right in my yard every year & the seedings spring up everywhere each spring. Black Walnut trees are abundant in my area. I will keep this info in mind from now on. I dont think those small walnut trees will be growing there much longer.

I keep reading more & more about all the types of trees that are bad to have around my pond. Walnuts are bad,Oaks are bad, Pines are bad. What types of trees are good to let grow around ones pond?

Check in to some Catalpa trees. No damage to pond (that I am aware of), and the catalpa worm that frequents the tree in the summer months is a great source of bait. Of course you have to introduce a group of worms during the first season, but after that they drop into the ground to reproduce (in winter months they hibernate there).

I think trees producing growth inhibitors is fairly common. I know for sure that some oak trees exhibit this trait. My wife got upset when I removed all the small oak trees from around our new pond, but I didn't want to take a chance on acids, toxins, and sludge getting in.

OTOH, if your pond is large, I wouldn't think 3 or 4 trees would produce enough leaves and husks to be toxic. If the pond is small-ish, it's bound to have at least some effect. Collect all you can, and don't worry about the rest if there are no signs of stress.

Brettski, I been wonderin, are you the fella that's been bettin on hockey games? Seriously, if you are worried and gonna remove them, call a sawmill. They are payin major $ for even fair sized ones. Bob-O

I have dozens of huge Live Oak, Post oak, and Oak trees around my pond. My pond will go before my trees. My fish will just have to get used to oak toxin. I have fished many ponds and rivers lined with oak and the fish all seemed healthy. I can buy some property and build a pond but it takes years to get huge trees to grow!

Bob-O pretty much nails it:
You just made me grin a youth-reflective, devilish smile. When Gretzky was hot hockey news (way back when), he picked up that re-fabricated moniker "The Great Gretzky". Concurrently I was working feverishly to make my mark of fame in the back of my GMC custom show van. I got tagged the Great Brettski. Ultimately, tho, it got shortened to Brettski...to this day I fear that this editing was based on subsequent performance reviews.

(enuff of my stories of wayward youth...)
Bob-O,
Regarding the sawmill reference, I did pursue that route last year just before we started to clear the timber for the pondsite. I brought in a timber company site inspector to walk the area and examine the timber. He summarized the area with the statement "call me back in about 20 years". He said that there is alot of quality trees, but there isn't enough harvest to make it worth the cost of bringing in a crew. Now, mind you, this was when a logging road about 1/3 mile would have to be cleared to get to the pondsite; this was a cost factor to him, also. Since that time, tho, I have opened the 1/3 mile drive AND cleared about 6 ac of the subject timber, so entry/exit would be cake now. I can't believe that they would send in even a small crew to cherry-pick 4 or 5 of the remaining perimeter Walnuts that are the subject of this thread. Quite frankly, I am hoping/banking on these trees not creating a negative fish pond issue, hence my original query to that end.
thx for your post
...PFF,
Trees rule; especially old and wise. It tore me up to remove some of the select beauties within the pondsite, but that was destiny for this project. For the remaining soldiers that protect my baby, when nobody is looking I give 'em a pat on the trunk and re-assure them that they are still part of the team. Except maybe those nasty, crappy Black Locusts....ick.

Brettski- I have an island in the center of my pond because I would not give up a grove of live oaks. I think it was one of those good things that comes from being stubborn. It has made my pond unique. I plan on building a bridge to and a dock on my island. I finally got my digital camera working and will try to post some pictures when the sun comes out.

I'm skeptical.

Why? Because I used to fish natural lakes in New England that were surrounded by thousands of Oak trees. Lots of leaves went into the water in fall, along with probably nuts, but I sure didn't seem to see any fish having any problems. Of course there were lots of squirrels and chipmunks to.

Here's a pic of a small 35 acre lake surrounded by mostly Oak trees. One of the best darn fishing lakes I ever fished, and still is when I go back.

I'm kind of skeptical too, Cecil. In fairness, the larger the lake, the higher the volume/shoreline ratio - larger lake = lower (possible) tree toxicity.

There's all those great perch/walleye/pike lakes in Canada surrounded by pine trees, too.

That true about the tree ratio Theo but have you seen how many trees these small lakes have around them?

We have lots of oaks , hickory , Pines and others, but no walnut in the watershed ,on the banks and in the water. I put in oak limbs ( green ones) in brush plies all the time and add tops, also even cut down damaged ones into the pond. No problems. All you have to do to offset the tannins (tannic acid) is add lime. Don't know about walnuts.

Man, I could stare at pix like that all day....beautiful! Ewest, do you get decent Fall color?

Great pond photo documentation - beats dull statistics - as well as your "Supplemental BG / Tiger Bass Experiment photos:

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001433

Good work.....

Thanks ! That is really not a good pic. of that pond as it was taken in mid summer early am with haze on the water. If you put the one from this post with the one from the other post George linked you can see about 70% of the pond. The rest is up the arms on the left pic. where the grow out area is located.

We do get color in the fall (not like New England) and I will post a pic. of last fall soon.

I would agree with you that it takes years/centuries for a huge tree to grow, but on another note: Ponds can only be located in certain areas. With taking that into account, sometimes collateral damage is the cost for a big pond. One has to have enough drainage for a big pond, but trees can be planted and grown in locations with minimal drainage to offset the destruction in the pond building stage.
But, hey, you made it work. All great ponds need at least one island.

Concerning black walnuts and ponds, It must have some effect since its considered illegal to fish by poisoning (with walnut husks?)...........

In reference to your stated black walnuts surrounding your great future pond: Leave the walnuts be. If you start to see fish floating on the top of the water someday, then you can decide then what you want to do. It doesn't sound like that big a problem. A couple minutes with a saw can take out those walnuts if they want to cause problems with the pond's balance.

Sound sounding advice, Lance.

I agree, good advice Lance esp. for a first post!
Welcome aboard!

Now that you bring it up, I'm thinking I once read of indians using walnut hulls to harvest fish?

How west in Iowa are you, Lance? I'm in Lincoln, NE. Maybe not far from you. Liked your picture in your profile. Good stuff.

Ric ponders...
Ya know, that thought was buggin' me too. Where did I see that....hmmmm. Then it hit me!.....
the 3rd post on this thread!
:p

I live near Denison, IA.

Oh, yeah. Just south of Deloit.

Brettski
You made me go back & look!
Man! I'm getting old! :rolleyes: