Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? cleaning up the pond and making some improvements

I have a one acre pond that over the years started filling in with silt, cattails and more recently water lily. It's deep enough to be used for a swimming hole but it's a favorite target for river otter that come up from a nearby stream and so I don't think I'm going to ever keep anything but the smallest minnows and frogs.. fish are not in the cards for me.

I hired a dozer and excavator and in two days had the pond drained and the bottom scraped. It's approx 12-15 feet deep in most areas now. There's a dam on the one side of the pond. To drain the pond the excavator opened/breached the dam. The opening is approx. 6 feet wide and will remain open during renovations.

Next up is to make some improvements. I'd like to address a ongoing silting problem. There's a small brook that is the main feeder to the pond... there's also two springs that source some water to it. Silting is evident in the area where the brook enters the pond. During heavy rain and in the spring the brook does carry quite a bit of water and it's likely when the heaviest silting occurs.

The brook meanders through a stand of trees right before it enters the pond and there are some deep pools where the water has a chance to slow up and settle. I plan to get it there with a small excavator and enlarge and deepen these pools and build up the area where the brook enters the pond with some various grades of stone.

The shape of the pond approximates a triangle. Two of the sides have steep drop offs. The other side is where the brook and springs enter. It's on this side I plan to put in some gravel and sand for people access. Northern New England ponds are known for leaches. I'm also looking at a floating dock to anchor off on of the deep sides.

Lastly, I'm considering some kind of sluice pipe and valve to be positioned in the slot that was made in the dam to drain the pond. I think such a thing exists???? My thinking is that a sluice may provide a mechanism to clean out some of the muck and silt that will inevitably accumulate over time. Above this, I plan to install an overflow pipe.

Has anyone had experience with a sluice pipe and valve? If so, was it fabricated locally or did you purchase it from a retail supplier? What diameter should I be considering for the sluice and overflow pipes?

Thanks in advance for any advice and or suggestions.

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz215/keegsbucket/pond.jpg
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz215/keegsbucket/photo1_zps030a8b30.jpg
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz215/keegsbucket/photo2_zpsaf189154.jpg

Quite a transformation through the three pictures. Nice pond and setting.

There are some old threads here on PBF where guys have done extensive work to solve sediment problems just like you are trying to do. Maybe some of those people will see this or you can sift through the old posts and find them.

I've created a sediment pond ahead of my main pond, but it was only completed this year and we have yet to have enough rain to see how effective it will be.

One suggestion would be in the area you are going to deepen the pools in the stream where the water enters. Anything you can do to slow the water down will help the sediment settle out. For example, if you could cause the creek to meander, with right hand turns, it would be much better than going straight through the pools. Rip-rap the corners so erosion does not happen on the banks where the water hits it. Create a longer, slower path for the water to follow.

The other suggestion is to, best you can, keep the area designated for sediment either 1. very large so it rarely has to be cleaned out, or 2. built in such a way that it is easily and relatively inexpensively cleaned out with a backhoe or other machine.

That is all I got. Others will come along with more ideas.

I'd look at putting some Yellow Perch in the pond to help with the leeches. Yeah, most might be cleaned out by the otters, but some should survive to repopulate the pond. Fathead minnows too, for skeeters.

Keegs, consider using 4" PVC pipe and a valve about 6' deep on the backside of the dam for year round level control or draining if needed. The pool side of the pipe can be covered with large gravel on the outflow side should be in a location that won't erode, plus covered with a critter cage or flap cover to prevent animals getting stuck in it. A siphon would be better for all around flow control and main drainage, but I am not sure it wouldn't freeze and become useless in your area.

esshup,

sometime back, someone ...maybe on this forum, suggested I create some hiding places that fish could use to evade predation.... maybe some hollow logs or rock piles... might be worth a try.

thanks snrub and rainman.

Some cover that has "branches" in it will help too. Something that has spaces between the "branches" that slows down the otters swimming speed and doesn't allow them to turn as fast as clean water might help. Yellow Perch might also use that for spawing habitat too.

I met a man in New Hampshire who built log cabin like shelters for the fish with sticks and logs too close together for otters, but not fish. He claimed it worked and it looked reasonable to build.

I'm thinking it may be as easy as stacking some pallets up here and there.

For sediment, the other idea besides a smaller pond upstream that can be dredged periodically is to pull a side stream off the stream. Let the stream go past the pond not directly into it. Dam up the creek and Pull a 4inch pipe of water perpendicularly from the side of the creek upstream of this dam and run this to your pond. You still get fresh water but most of the stream and silt goes right past your pond.

If not and you want to do the sluice idea through bottom of the dam to periodically drain the pond and let it flush silt out, buy a flash board riser overflow. Available commercially and allows height of water to be adjusted by adding boards or remove all of them to drain pond.