Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Building a new pond.

Hi all, I am in the early stages of building a pond(clearing land at this point)and I am concerned about possible damage that the crayfish might do to the dam. In one of my ponds there are easily a hundred chimneys and holes in the dam this year. I was wondering if there is anything I can do with the new dam to prevent it. I was thinking of something like a plastic liner a foot under the soil or maybe a layer of 3" stone (could be expensive) under the soil as well. In the existing pond, that was built by an excavator, the dam is 12' wide at the top and serves as a road so hopefully the crayfish can't hurt it, but in the pond I am building the dam will be narrower, maybe 6' to 8' wide.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks, Jeff

I think the liner would be a better option for covering the face of the dam, then covering the liner with a foot or so of dirt vs. the rocks. I think the rocks will cause more problems than the crayfish.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of maybe using a geotextile fabric. Is this overkill? I've searched on google and found articles that have said that it's very unlikely that the crayfish could cause any structural damage to the dam. And many more that say that I should worry about it. Does anyone have first hand knowledge of it happening? I hate to spend money needlessly.

Thanks,
Jeff

Well, technically the crayfish won't do enough damage to the dam to cause a problem. It's the water that could flow thru the hole that they make that causes the problems....

Geotextile or other liner, whatever gives you the most peace of mind.

Cecil had problems with 5 star moles at his place.