Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam trees on dam

I just moved to a home on a lake that is 50+ yeare old the dam has alot of trees of all sizes and varieties growing on front top and backside of it. I know that trees are bad for dams because they weaken it and could cause serious probs when they fall ond or die. So what is the best eay to remove them... do the roots need removed? will there be dirt work involved? I know someone is going to say I need to hire a pro which is probably exactly what ill do but Im just trying to get an idea what Im gonna be getting myself into... thanks for your advice in advance

We're dealing with the same situation. Theory has it that anything under 6" caliper (diameter), measured at breast height (DBH) can be cut down and you'll be OK. That is my plan for our dam.

Anything over 6" DBH would require yanking out the root ball which would be hard on the dam, especially if there are a lot of them. The advice given to me was to leave the big ones alone. If one goes over, deal with it then. The damage done to the dam by clearing and grubbing the roots could be a lot. This is the advice given to me by a person that would be doing the job. In effect he advised me not to do a job that he estimated would run $20k - $30k.

My plan is to flush cut the smaller stuff and run a pad foot compactor on the back side of the dam every couple of years or so to account for the decomposition of the roots. I may even rent a tracked stump grinder for a weekend to remove as much woody material as possible.

Right now, this is only a plan. I have no idea how well it will work out.

Good luck.

-RFL

thanks for your advice that is basically what I figured would have to be done, but I think leaving the bigger trees is a mistake by allowing them to grow more and further extend their root structure. I think it would be smarter to girdle the big trees and then cut them down this winter for us atleast since we have some hard freezes. In your situation maybe girdle and wait for a dry time when ground is hard and cut them down and remove as much root as possible... I also was thinking that if I put a mound of dirt on top of low cut stump maybe the dirt would replace the docomposing roots sounds good in theory