Do large trees at the edge of your pond help protect your pond from the summer heat and evaporation loss or do the large trees themselves drink up a lot of water daily to negate the evaporation loss?

Large trees drink a lot of water, and roots can penetrate the core of the dam and cause leaks. The leaves fall into the pond and cause sludge build up.

How much water consumption are we talking about? Excluding trees on a dam, is it more beneficial to have large trees on the edge of a pond to shade the pond from the hot sun or would it be better to limit them as they drink too much water?

Maybe my trees are responsible for some of my water loss. They are nice to look at though, and I can always find a shaded spot in the water, where the water temp "seems" a lot cooler.

Figure a couple hundred gallons per day per large tree during the growing season. Even more during hot, windy days. Very little transpiration occurs during leafless periods. For example: My little creek only runs a few days after a big rain in summer due to trees and brush growing all along the banks taking up the water. After leaf-off, it runs continually until at least mid spring.

Beautiful pond - I wouldn't trade a view like yours for the loss of few feet of water. I had no choice but to cut down some trees as I needed a place for the dozer to push dirt. Where did your dirt go? Did you have to use an excavator and dump trucks to haul it off?

I think the wind and the humidity has more effect on water loss than what the trees take. Wind blowing over the top of our pond with low humidity we can loose an inch a day easy.