I didn't get home till almost 10:00 PM. Now, I can't find my photo collection of what I've done to the pond.
So, I'll start, and try to get photos posted in a couple of days.
Some things I did:
1. I stopped a major erosion area above the pond. When we moved in six summers ago, there was about a 3-foot deep ravine that directly fed the pond. It came from a large pasture on an adjoining property. The combination brought in lots of mud and lots of organic material (manure tea). The first thing I did was fill in the ravine. I actually tried to crest the old ravine -- that never has quite worked. It took a lot of rework. I placed rows of big rocks across everywhere water moved fast down this area. I then placed lots of organic material, like straw and leaves behind the rocks. I kept reseeding it with everything I could -- winter rye, peas, grass seed, clover. It took a couple of years, but this area eventually filled in, and is no longer a problem.
2. I created two minor wetlands. The area described above entered the pond over a wide low area about 50 x 50. It was bare when we started. I scraped it out with a rear blade on my tractor, and turned it into a shallow bowl that was several inches lower than full pool of the pond. I then started dumping large amounts of organic material into this bowl. It stayed wet most of the year. I regularly added many kinds of seeds, and always adding more organic material, like clippings, leaves, and straw. It eventually turned into a nice marshy area that really filters water coming down from the neighboring pasture. It now gets brushhogged once a year when I can actually drive the tractor over it.
The second wetland is still a work in progress. So far, I've only added several rows of rocks to slow water coming down what becomes a stream when it rains hard or for long periods. I plan to dig it out and turn it into a small pond area where fry and fingerlings can hide from their bigger and hungrier cousins.
3. I created two settling ponds in another area that includes a wet-season/heavy-rain stream that flows about 1000 feet through the woods. During heavy rains, this area sends a lot of water into the pond. Previously, it washed massive amounts of silt and leaves into the pond. The first settling pond is about 15-20 feet above the pond. It is small -- maybe 8-ft diameter, and one foot deep. It feeds the pond through a culvert. This little pond entrance and exit are filtered with piles of large rocks. I'll get pictures. But it really collects a lot of junk. About 150 feet above that is a bigger settling pond that really collects a lot of junk, and it really slows down the water. It is about 25-ft in diameter, and about 6-foot deep -- in the early autumn. I clean both settling ponds out in late August or early September when it is dry, and the leaves haven't started to fall. The bigger settling pond gathers 2-3 feet of silt and debris that I pull up into the woods with a landscape rake. The smaller pond gathers about a foot of junk that I pull out with the rake or with my front-end loader.
4. I divert a lot of water. I have diverted muddy water that comes down the dirt road that passes by my pond -- and provides access to the pond. I have slowly shaped it, and I've dug ditches, so that this water goes down through a field behind the dam. It gets cleaned going through the field before it meets up with the pond output. This too is a work in progress. It takes regular maintenance, as the ditches keep filling up. Eventually, I'll get enough plantings to keep it from eroding as fast.
5. I don't mow any closer than about 12 inches to the edge of the pond. I keep that area high, and trim it with a weed whacker. It collects silt and junk, slows erosion, and gives the frogs a place to hide. Here is a post I made last year about how I trim around the pond:
Pond Edge Mowing 6. I try to keep heavy vegetative growth around the perimeter of the pond. Some of that can be seen in the above link. I mow at about 5-inch height. I only bushhog once a year in the areas where lots of water flow through to the pond.
7. I've removed nearly all of the trees within 20 feet of the pond edge to keep leaves out of the pond. More to be removed, but not until the earth is well stabilized.
I'll try to post more later in the week.
Ken