Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hi from Scranton PA area

Hi everyone-
I’ve been lurking here for a few weeks and have searched through a lot of old threads.
I have no experience with water other than drinking it and swimming but there’s a new development for us so I’ve come here hoping to find some help.

About 10 years ago a family member built a pond which never worked out. It’s 2-2/3 acres of surface area with a maximum depth around 12–14 feet. While it has held water for short periods of time it has always drained out. Our running theory is the excavators cracked the bluestone at the bottom of the dig. It’s pretty clear there will need some pretty extensive help to fix and time isn’t doing us any favors.
The real issue at the moment is the dam, and this is where I’m looking for advice. The outside of the dam is well mown grass with one or two ground hog burrows- I’m sure they can’t be a good thing.
Also, over 10 years a lot of brush and a number of trees have grown on the inside of the dam. It may be a couple of years more before we can give this any serious attention but if possible I’d like to limit any extra damage over the next 2-4 years. Some of the trees are reaching 4+” diameter and most everything is fast growing soft wood. Should I cut the trees and leave a couple of feet of stump to stop root infiltration? What about willows and similar bushes? I had considered cutting their branches to maybe a foot long to limit their growth.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Small trees like that should be ok to kill. If they get much bigger, they can be a real problem. I have good success with Remedy and diesel applied to the trunk.

Dave, thanks for the input. The Google picture is a little old and the growth is somewhat bigger now- which is why I’m looking into this. The biggest concern I have is making a problem into a BIG problem. The pond site is beautiful and has great runoff feeds so when we can give it the attention it deserves it will be amazing.
The forum threads here have given us some great ideas and I’m confident that in time this pond will live up to its potentially.
As I mentioned before I’m totally new to this kind of thing so I’ll be grateful for any suggestions AT ALL.

You’re in the right place for answers. Take your time and make sure to spend a lot of time studying all options. It doesn’t sound like waiting is going to hurt you any. But I would remove the trees ASAP.

The biggest problem is the tree roots weakening the dam. Then, if/when they die, it leaves small voids.

That’s where I’m concerned. If we let the trees grow the roots work in further. As there’s probably not going to be much work done soon the goal is to minimize medium term damage. Pulling them out makes sense but we’d need immediate proper repairs to the holes and that’s not likely to happen right now (I’m assuming we’d want to pack the holes with clay?).
Eventually the trees have to go as they will be underwater when the pond is finally filled

I doubt trees of that size will cause any dam integrity issues if you kill them off now. The problem is if you don't kill them, even mowing them off, the roots will continue to grow, just not as fast. Softwoods tend to have mostly surface roots, not like nut trees with a tap root into the water table.

Kill the trees, mow the dam once a year. Early spring before green-out to kill/knock back the brush but leave wildflower plants to support ecosystem and suppress new brush seeds due to competition with tall native plants.