HELLO,
I am new here and may have missed seeing this answered in the past.. but
I am in the planning phase of my pond.. I had an old farm pond that was heavily silted in... and decided I wanted a bigger body of water. I am planning to reconstruct the dam ( the old one leaked anyway) and move it further down "hill". There are 3 large oak trees that are near the edge of where I want to build my dam. and my question is: how close can I build my dam to these trees without cutting them down?
is it possible to build the core trench within say 15 feet of the trees and build the back of the dam around the trees?
thanks

i guess i should clarify some things...
the area is nearly flat. my total dam height is going to be about 10 feet and total area of the pond is about 3/4 acre.
I am trying to make it as big as possible and keep the trees.. so I guess the question is.. how far from the trees should I start the core trench?
thanks

Hello STU801 and welcome to Pond Boss. Hang on for some expert opinions.

Generally speaking you do not want to put to much soil over the existing ground underneath the drip line of the tree. To much soil will suffocate the tree and it will die with in a few years.

I have seen this done on a client's ranch. They built dam and then made a concrete wall on backside of dam to protect tree. They used concrete bags and overlapped them to create a wall. This project was concluded about 4 years ago and so far trees are in perfect condition. In fact they get a little more water than rest of trees. Trees are no more than 20 feet from core trench. As Rockytopper says you want to stay away from piling any soil underneath canopy of tree. This is why a wall that separates dam from tree works well.

Chad and Rockytopper have good advice. The farther the tree is from the dam the better chance it has to make it.

Otto

thanks for the advice..
I am really want to preserve these big trees while maximizing the size of my pond... I will take pics and post when I get started good.

STUB801

Look forward to the pictures.

make it quit raining every other day and I can move some dirt...
I just received the Pond boss perfect pond book and my first issue of the magazine... Great sources of info... thanks

I am PRAYING for the rain to hold off.