Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Questions about pond construction

Greetings all!

I've been lurking and reading. This is a fantastic site, and what a great bunch of helpful folks there are around here.

I was hoping you might be able to spread some of that knowledge this way...

I presently live in Tennessee, but have accepted an emergency medicine position in the St. Joseph, Missouri area and we'll be relocating there in the next few months. We're house-hunting as we speak, so I thought now might be a good time to ask a few questions about pond building and so forth...

I see there are a few folks from Missouri on the forums here who have built ponds, and their posts have been most helpful. If they happen to read these posts, I'd love to hear their input. But I'd love to hear EVERYONE'S input.

This home is going to be our "forever" home, so I want it to be right. We're going to purchasing 40 to 60 acres or so, and we'd like to have a large pond...like to the tune of 8 to 12 acres. Large enough for a wide variety of recreational activities.

As I understand from reading some of the other posts here, the Missouri Dept of Conservation can prove an invaluable resource in pond construction, and I'd love to hear, specifically, how I can utilize them (re: consulting expertise, construction assistance, management, etc.). I'd also like to hear what the limitations of their assistance are, and what I should watch out for or avoid.

Is there any advice anyone can give me regarding picking out a good spot for such a pond? I'm sure, given the size of this pond, that the lay of the land is an essential element. I was kind of wondering if I were to pick out some crop land that was in a rolling hills area without a lot of timber, if that might be a good site (I certainly realize that a pond of this scope must have a good inflow of water as well as a good outlet should all hell break loose...my downstream neighbors would be most appreciative of proper planning, I imagine).

So if I were to find such a spot, with little timber, would that make it much more cost effective with regard to grading for the pond? And somebody mentioned (sorry, don't recall who), that the MO Dept. of Conservation will also plant trees at their expense? So would it be possible for them to plant trees in the area around the pond (not immediately adjacent to...but in the area surrounding..)?

Any other advice regarding stocking, management would be most appreciated. It might seem a bit premature to some for me to be asking these questions, but I'm a firm believer in the old addage "...an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Might as well get my thinking straight before I even buy the land the pond will be on.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I appreciate your feedback and the great forum!

Best regards,

Mac

WELCOME BIG MAC! I am sure the Missouri people will be home from the bars soon and will give you some good advice.

I lived in Missouri for 10 years...so your comments about "coming home from the bars" are well taken. Then again, you have to remember I'm moving from Tennessee, where illegal distillery and sipping moonshine while rocking on the front porch of a shanty has been perfected to a fine art (ummm...not that I would partake in such immoral behaviors...).

P.S. Two posts...and I'm already tired of being a "fingerling". Who can I slip a few bucks to in order to forgo the normal process and go straight to "lunker"?

Big Mac, I believe you'll want to check with the farm service agency for the county you want to purchase land in. They should have a qualified employee that will visit your property and provide great advice on pond locations, cost shares etc.
Stop by the fsa office and they can provide a map showing rock and other soil types for their county. I found out after I purchased a farm that the ground had to much rock to build a good pond, sold that place and did a little more homework before purchasing the next farm. I own 130 acres east of St.Joe about 40 miles, the contractor that built my pond I highly recommend, let me know if you would like his info.

Thanks for the reply. I think you may prove to be a great resource. The land we're looking at is in the Cameron to Chillicothe area. I'm glad to hear you post, because it has been hard for me to imagine, to this point, that it would be difficult to find soil that is not well suited to pond building. There seems to be a large number of large ponds (10+ acres) in the general area we're looking, so it seemed to me that the soil in the area seemed well suited (generally speaking) to pond building. I'm glad to hear from you that you still have to be cautious in this area.

I would be most grateful if you could pass on the names of any folks you have found helpful. And I'd be thankful for any other advice you can offer.

Mac

Howdy Big Mac!

You'll become a Lunker at ten posts.

I believe the next milestone is at 10,000.

What comes after lunker? State Record? Mort?

I like this guy already.

Welcome to Pond Boss, Mac, we're glad you found us.

I never really know where to put the commas. Should that have one comma? Two commas? No commas? I don't know. They're cheap so I put two in.

jeffhasapunctuationmark

Actually, after Mac, there should be a semi-colon;. 2 short sentences.

Mrs. Brady...you,remember,your,grammar-teacher!?

Just great....
Next it's gonna be Burgermeister taking Big Mac down to Ronald McDonald pond to check the minnow traps for fry(s).

(groan)

...as Bski skulks away wearing an evil grimace

... as popular support rallys around him.

nyuk nyuk

Pretty sure it's supposed to be...

Welcome to Pond Boss, Mac. We're glad you found us.

My father is an English professor, so I can forward this on to him for official verification if it really matters...

NAWWWW...

However, I would like to point out that commas are not always inexpensive. For instance...let's say you are writing a check to a general contractor for doing a few days work on your pond...and you go to write the check...and because you've been supervising his excavation technique from the rocking chair of your shanty, and having put a significant dent in the moonshine jug...you write him a check for one-thousand dollars that reads $10,000...

So you see, you must pay closer attention to commas in certain circumstances...

Wow, I didn't realize that I would spark a puncuation debate. Actually I like the two sentence and one comma structure Big Mac. It looks cleaner and neater.

!?';:"". (don't mind me I'm just playing with my puncuation marks).

Welcome to the forum,MAC.If youll send me a check for $10,000 I'll see you go to lunker status as soon as the check clears.

Okay, had some questions about a property I'm looking at. Was wondering how conducive this property might be to building a pond. This property is 12 acres...not as big as we were wanting. But, it has a new home, nice pool, a pool house (to accommodate the in-laws), it's about 30 minutes from my work, and it's 1.5 miles away from a very large lake and recreational area. So, it's got a lot more good than bad going for it.

Here is a satellite view of the property. The house is at the end of the driveway shaped like a fish hook. You can see a small area of water to the right of the home, where they were perhaps intending a pond to be??



This next image show's a bird's eye perspective of the property. It shows the back of the home, the swimming pool and the pool house.



This next picture shows the house from a different perspective. The red arrow points to the house. You can see the existing puddle (pond?) to the left of the home. You can also see there is a decent size stream to the left of where the pond would go, which would create a good outflow area below the dam. I would be trying to build an approximate 3 acre pond.



Here is the same photo with approximate placement of the pond.



Here is what I believe to be the approximate property line around the property, with approximate placement of the pond indicated. The little red box indicates location of the pool house, and the little blue area to the left of the pond indicates location of the pool.



Finally, here is a topo map of the property, with same markings for placement of pond, pool house and pool.



So I'm wondering...does this property look like it might support an approx 3 acre pond? If there is not enough natural run-off, what are my options...could I dig a well and keep the pond full that way?

Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated!!!

I think it looks like a classic run-off scenario to support a pond. Can you provide the topo without the blue pond? Maybe just the outline? I'd like to see the topo lines as they run thru the proposed pondsite.

Yeah, I can do that. I'm at work, and can't do it from here. I'll get it done when I get home tonight.

I appreciate your response!

Mac

Some food for thought...
One of the dozens of properties that we researched for a pond was a similar situation. The pond would be adjacent to a creek. The issues came up relative to the hydrology of the soils in the bottom land. The NRCS checked the maps and said that the entire area at the level of the creek was mapped as wetland. It ran up into the surrounding region at elevations higher than the creek. Since the pond dam required reaching down close to the creek area, it would have been into the higher regions of what was mapped as wetland. I asked how soils that were 10 - 20 feet higher than the creek could be considered wetland? It all came down to hydrology. It gets complicated, but, in layman's terms, something to do with the amount of moisture in the soils for a given period thru the year. Anyway, they told me I was messing with stuff that would need DNR and likely ACoE approval. I made those phone calls to both the DNR and ACoE and it started gettin' scary: permits and mitigation of the affected wetlands (find another comparable area and convert it to wetlands). The potential hoops shut it down quickly for me.

Hmmmm....I'll have to look further into the wetlands issue. It had occurred to me that I would have to consider the potential flood stages of the creek as it relates to the dam, but I would have thought the proposed pond site was far enough away from that creek so I wouldn't have those issues...but maybe I'm wrong.

Here's the outline of the approximate pond location.

Do your research now, reap the rewards down the road. It will be easier(and cheaper)to do before you move the first shovel of dirt. Check with your county drainage department and DNR etc. Also remember the amount of work it will take to keep the site up. Algea control, leaf removal, Cattail control etc. will become a task on a 3 acre plus pond. My pond is just a big puddle, but everytime my good friend (who has a much larger pond) comes to visit he always comments that he wishes his pond wasn't so darn big cause the maintenace cost and time is a killer.