Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site 2.6 acre pond location

So what is the equipment you would expect in a 5 acres of woods clearing and building a dam for a 3 acres pond build? Should I make sure a excavator, dozer, or track loader is there or a combination?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4kcmcubxxd17126/AAAJ1UmGSZZJDxKS-NnKtIgTa?dl=0

Can three pictures be seen?

Martin,

First I need to say sorry for hijacking yer thread for a little humor.

Seriously though, I would not move forward without getting the book "Just Add Water" from the PB bookstore. You are going to be spending a bunch of pesos for this project. Best to start with advice from the best pond builder there is, Mr. Otto, as a starting point. .....Just my 2 cents

Bill D.

I have personally done a lot of clearing for myself. Did another 5 acres this past summer at our place in CO. I am not sure how the professionals do it, but for me a big excavator is a necessity. You could probably save yourself a lot of money by doing that part yourself. Biggest problem is figuring out what to do with all the material you're gonna generate.

EDIT: I should clarify it depends a lot on what needs to be cleared. We are taking down HUGE mature spruce and fir trees. Lots of the over 100'. If it is all small stuff I am sure a dozer would do just fine.

I can't see them

I see them. I'm not an expert, but those don't look like "harvestable" trees. Meaning trees that would be in demand by the timber buyer. I did to see any that were over 24" at 6' up. That's about where my guys had their limit.
The dozer took them out, roots and all fairly easily. If I had to do it over again, I'd find a good place for a burn pile, that's very close, and take them there and burn them.
I only had to clear a little over an acre, as the trees come pretty close to the water' sedge. I am not sure if a 2.6 acre pond would require additional equipment. My dozer guys pulled the sheeps foot roller with a big John Deere tractor, it got around just fine. They also had a track hoe to help cut the core for the dam. Your dam might be big enough that they can just use the dozer.
Have you had the guy from the USDA office (pond expert) come out? He's pretty good at calculating what the dam height will be, and then calculating the drainage area. He can also get a soils guy to come out also.
I had a good sized back hoe come in first and dig test holes at the expected base of the dam, and up both sides, along with a few random holes. Those will help the USDA guy.
Good luck, please keep up posted.

Hey everyone. I have a lot to talk about so I'll break this down I'm paraghphs.

I overestimated the size. I eyeballed the water line and was way off. A builder was nice enough to shoot it. I haven't GPS the acreage yet but it's more like a 1.8 acre pond. Now he told me a lot of that could and will need to be dug out for the dam material. Which would be 120yrds long and 24' high. So he thinks in the end it will be a little over 2 acres.

The dam like I said is quit big I'll need to take pictures next weekend. But I don't think he has the dirt for it. I see rocks sticking out of the soil but all three builders didn't seem to worried about it. They all are pretty sure there's more dirt under it. Even in the gravel bottom creek bed. There are Some big trees(maybe 28" in diameter) in the creek and two contractors told me that if there wasn't soil underneatheath it they wouldn't be able to stand there.

I had the NRCS come out with a reputable government contractor but it was raining and so the NRCS guy didn't even get out of the vehicle. He said he just wanted to know where it is so he could look up the soil and topo maps. Him and The contractor came out and they both didn't seem to excited about it. The contractor thought there was dirt under the rock layer but he did think I had enough to build the dam I wanted. i guess I'll wait for the soil analyst, then have some trenches dug to see if I have the dirt needed.

One thing that made my pond so much smaller is the amount of free board they wanted. They wanted 5'. But I have a 1.2 acre pond 400 yards away that has like 2' of freeboard and it's fine. My dad said he just didn't cut down the pipe to extend the freeboard when it was built. Been there 35 years and has a small 5" overflow pipe and about 26 acres of watershed. This guy said he could cut it down to 4' freeboard with a 12" pipe, it has 34 acres of watershed. I guess I might have to forget to cut the pipe to. It's going to have the spillway.

Something I was wanting to have is like a couple of shallow areas 2' deep. I usually catch a lot of bass in places like this that are shallow and have a lot of aquatic vegetation. It would be a cheap way to up the acreage of the pond to. is this a good idea?

This has turned out to be a lot more of a planning and learning curve and money pit than I expected. But one things for sure, I am 31 years old and have had so much fun with ponds. Ponds are just who I am. And if this new pond cost 25k and last 40 years that's only about $650 dollars a year. Sounds cheap when I put it like that.