Suggestions might be a good bet here and might be helpful to a guy that screws up more than he wants to admit
The contractor has arrived and will start today on some of the projects I want or need on the property. Forage pond will start in a couple of days from now.
Goals for the forage pond is to trap water and reduce the size of the swamp in this area and to produce additional forage for this LMB and HSB pond.
When we built my 3.5 acre watershed pond we caused a drain problem or I should say we caused a lack of drain in this area. And this caused an area of approximately 5 acres to become a swamp in the rainy season. This area held water from Feb till late July. So as a solution to this man made problem, I have decided to build a forage pond along with improving the area where it will drain to the nearby bayou.
Size of this pond depends. Plans are to trap three drains coming off the nearby higher land area. Two of these drains are drains are within 100 yds of each other and the 3rd is 100 yds away from these two. I am thinking I will catch two of these so they will drain directly into the forage pond and I will attempt the redirect the 3rd to where it will drain into the same pond. I will add a siphon to this pond to hopefully handle any possibility of overfill of this pond.
We dug a pilot hole Saturday and the soil was wet and mushy down to 6 feet and by Sunday it was holding 4' of water.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Tracy

I like the idea of channeling water when needed. It might get a little muddy when first started.

Tracy:

To make taking care of the exposed banks easier, (but it might cause weed problems if it stays flooded) make the banks no steeper than 3:1 until you hit the depth that the water will most commonly be stable at. This will allow you to groom the exposed pond bottom when water is low without having to superglue your butt to the tractor seat.

After that, make the banks as steep as possible without the dirt sloughing off into the pond bottom to minimize evaporation.

esshup, I get nervous on light slopes when on the tractor, never thought of super gluing my tail to the seat . One of my concerns was controlling the weeds in the shallow end of this pond. And thanks for the slope recommendations.
Dave one of my concerns on directing the 3rd drain to the pond is I wonder how much water will make it to the pond when and if we ever get more rain here in Texas. Will it cause a breach at pond in heavy downpours? Am I playing a wait and see game? Another thing to worry about when it comes to ponds, dam it ??

Tracy

WHAT heavy downpours?

Actually, I wouldn't do anything that my pipe and emergency overflow won't handle.

Tracy:

The slope thing is hard to get right.

1) If the water stays at a certain level all year round, the slope can be steep to prevent weeds from growing.

2) If the water drops, a steep slope will grow weeds out of the water that are impossible to mow unless you are part goat.

3) If the water drops, a gentle slope will allow you to mow the weeds that grow when the water drops, but you will have underwater weeds to deal with.

Pick your choice..........

Since I have a groundwater pond, and the water level bounces 60", I have learned that for my situation, option #3 is best.

Dave, after last spring and starting in Feb., you know the amount of rain we received across Texas. I don't know if that was a 100 yr rain but I hope to add a siphon that will handle that amount of water. But, I am just now building the pond, I do not know how much water will end up at the new pond each yr. I have received less than 1/8th of an inch since June 1st. And when we dug a pilot hole about 6' depth it filled to 4' deep by the next day. So really no clue at this time as to the amount of water this pond will receive yearly or if the ground water will always be there. I think I average rainfall in E Texas is around 42" but I'm not sure.
Checked the pH on the ground water and it was a 6.5
esshup, in my big pond, 3 of 4 pond sides are steep and weeds are growing waste high, downside to steep banks. But little to no growth of any vegetation in the pond. Plans are to run some type of net someday to remove forage fish to add to big pond , so I am planning on at least 1 gentle slope for pond entry and maybe one for pond exit. I am sure whatever I do it will be WRONG

Tracy

Tracy, if you don't like the slope of the banks, they always can be changed. Having it not to your liking is really only a temporary thing.

Tracy, I also went from water blowing out the overflow pipe to being 4+ ft down. Heck, i don't know the answer.