A friend of mine had a new pond dug a while back that was connected to the marsh on Spring Lake. After the 2+ year process of getting the blessing from all that you need to up here for a pond in this situation...

Contractor came out with a pretty much brand new track hoe (first real job with that rig). They laid down a bunch of logs over the mushy area and worked backwards, which seemed to work well for a while and all was cool.

Ummmm, now that they made some big enough changes in the dynamics, that track hoe got wet! Hevi Lift came in with one of their choppers to pluck it out! No way to get to it except overhead. That cost a pile!!!