Your suggestions, reading every tidbit on this forum, and Pub 590 sorta indicates protect the dam, clear some of the forest, and get creative with the areas away from the dam. In Oct. I'll get enough cleared to have line of sight across the water zone. I'm sure my drawings will change at that point. Think I'll keep some trees, maybe the 75' future grand Oak some 50' above perimeter. I was dreading clearing that much forest anyhow ;\) thanks

Self-educated rednecks, the real intelligentsia.