Moved into new home last summer and we own about 1/3 of a 13 acre wetland pond. Built a greenhouse last fall and got a crash course in state permitting on a wetland property, so I have a lot more to learn about what I can and can't do according to the DEC here in NY.

Our pond/wetland is beautiful and teeming with life. Wood ducks, great blue heron, geese, and dozens of other kinds of birds. I'm a fly-fisher originally from CO and haven't caught anything yet in this pond. I've seen fish and lots of snapping turtles, but I don't know what kinds are in here. The neighbor has caught bass.

Problems I could use help/advice:
- At least 3/4 of the pond is covered with water lilies during the summer. We'd like to have more open water though. It would be great if the lilies covered much less of the pond.
- There is a ton of leaf debris/muck in the bottom and from what people have said, the pond seems to be much less deep than it was 30 years ago. I'm not sure how to tell how much of this muck is on the bottom and if it was degraded would it increase the pond depth.
- Any advice from others in NY about what DEC will allow and not allow (e.g. bacteria additions, fish?)
- What kinds of water quality measurements should I take? I have a science degree (which I don't use anymore), but the inner-nerd wants to gather data to help.

Anything I'm missing? We'd just love to be sure this pond is as healthy as possible and good for fishing of course ;-)

Dave

AFAIK, if it is a natural pond, not man-made, you pretty much are not allowed to do a thing without DEC approval. You have the added complication of not having the entire thing on your property, so any chemical treatments, if allowed, should be swung by the neighbors for an OK also.

Your best bet is to add aeration to help break down the muck faster and prevent additional muck accumulation. You wont go back to "like-new" condition, but it will certainly help. It is a large pond, so you may only be able to hit a few select areas you want to improve on.

There is a natural pond near me called Sterling Pond. It's muck has reached the surface in the past few years, and with some loss of water table does not qualify as a pond anymore, and barely a swamp. One of the owners of 1/2 of the property has been petitioning the DEC to allow a clean-out and restoration of the pond, but the DEC will have none of it. So there it sits, a 7 acre pile of mush that wildlife barely utilizes.

Thanks for the info liquidsquid. I think aeration will be the next step - just need to work on what spots to aerate.

I lived on LI(Hauppauge) for my first 30yrs. Is this a state Wetlands system? or a private pond?

I'm going to go out on a limb here(not really) and say DEC will not let you do anything to any State Wetlands waters. They might not even allow the manual harvest of aquatic plants. You pretty much are ground zero in the land of NO!

I don't like to get started talking about "the man" telling me what I can and can't do......

Honestly, I am most interested in this part! What caused you to move out of CO? I thought people only moved INTO Colorado, didn't realize people moved out!

In three years, God willing, we will live there!