I was thinking about planting a few bald cypress near the bank of my excavated pond. Would there would be any problems with doing this?

My parents have several large bald cypress growing on the bank of one of their ponds. This is a 1 acre pond that has a small island on it, and there are also a couple of bald cypress growing on the island. The trees are large and have been there for years, the ones on the island have put out a couple knees but there have never been any leakage or water level problems. There are not any trees on or near the dam.

Good question. I've wondered the same thing. My wife has family up on Reelfoot and I've thought it would be pretty neat to have a couple of those Cypress trees growing on a shallow hump I have in the pond.

I have two bald Cypress planted next to the pond and their growing like weeds. I also planted a weeping willow and it has grown to over 30 ft in 5 years.It was eat off at the ground by a beaver it's second year and still is huge for it's age. I can't imagine how it could be anything but good for a pond considering they grow in nature in and next to the water. I heard that they use up a lot of water but I haven't noticed any effects on my water level.

Two potential problems I can think of:

1) Water loss as the tree transpirates pond water. This may be no problem at all if there's plenty of watershed and precipitation.

2) Increased organics into the pond with implications wrt silting up and water quality. This has not kept me from trying to get 3-4 trees on the South side of my pond (nowhere near the dam) for shade and fishing lure storage.

Theo, do you mean I am not the only one!

I have two bald cypress and several willow trees on the shores of my pond. They are nice to have for shade and I am not really concerned with the mentioned problems because of the size of my pond.

We have cypress trees at the ponds edge. Many in one pond and a few at another. Theo made good points above. They are a good source of shade and have underwater root systems in the pond (in addition to knees which are modified roots). The point you should consider is that they require pond maintenance. They spread around the pond including to the dam by dropping cypress balls into the water which float until they break open and the seeds contact the pond edge. If they are left in place without being pulled up they will, in time, result in the entire pond edge being covered with them.

I have several coming from the state to plant around my new pond. I have built ridges and small humps just to plant b. cypress on.
I intended to plant 10 to 15 to many?
The pond is 3 1/2 acres.

I love to fish around them in other lakes.

IMHO 10-15 trees (in general) is not too many to plant around a 3 1/2 acre pond.

How far North in Indiana are you? I'm at the halfway point in Ohio, 10 miles North of Dawes Arboretum, home of "The World's Northernmost Cypress Swamp."

Well, it's good to hear that this wouldn't be the end of the pond world...I planted both a bald cypress and a weeping willow about 50 feet apart on the bank of my newest pond. Love the BC's, and we have a WW on the pond at work. It's beautiful. Can't wait to see mine waving in the wind and shading part of the water.... :p