Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Michiganger starting my planning

Hi Geoff,
Sorry I missed this as I usually try to be quick about welcoming and encouraging MI pond owners. I would like to say that I would like to be quick to HELP them too but not sure I'm much help as this is all new to me as well. But I have learned a lot and you came to the right place.

I will double up on the concern about you getting in big trouble planning to dig a pond in a wetland. Although going to the DEQ in MI and asking about this feels like going to find out what price you have to pay to the priest before doing a particular sin, I would highly recommend it. You sink a boat load of money into this project and then the authorities come knocking and not only make you fill it back in but give you some painful fees for disturbing a natural wet land (fen, bog, vernal pond, etc) and you will have double pain.

This situation is not one where it is easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission!!

Then the 2nd thing is to read all you can about planning a pond and just as importantly, don't hire an excavator until you can visit SEVERAL of the ponds his/her outfit dug and talked to the pond owners about how leaky his/her ponds ended up being.

I've said it many times and have been proven right many times based on posts on this forum. In every state there are probably 5 or less 'excavators' that know how to properly build a pond. In the lower peninsula of MI there maybe are only be 1 or 2 total, if that. The rest are happy to move dirt for you and leave you with the leaky mess as the result.