Hello all, my Name is Greg Bickal, from Toddville Iowa (5 minutes north of Cedar Rapids). I grew up playing in the creeks and marshes. I am a full time Internet programmer. I have had rubber lined ponds for over 15 years, and I have a side business I breed and sell Japanese Koi. Im very experienced with liner ponds and filtration. I am a frequent member of many of the other koi related forums. I found your forum when I was researching drop inlet spillways. Your site has a great wealth of information.
I recently purchased 25 acre pasture to build natural ponds. This property has a upstream watershed of around 450 acres. 2 small creeks enter the property from the north, and leave the property from the south as one stream. 2012 was a severe drought for Iowa and these streams continue to flow at least 1-2 gallons per minute. The property has a drop in elevation from north to south of about 20 feet.
My plan is to build around a 4 acre excavated main pond, with additional ponds upstream to control silt. Maybe some small water control structures. This main system will not be for koi but native species, plants, ducks, geese, etc. Wetland enhancement Habitat.
I have all my permits from the Army Corp, NRCS, County, Wetland delineation, Etc. I have a local experienced excavating contractor who is willing to dig my ponds for free by giving him the dirt. He has shown me another 2 acre pond that he build for another land owner. I also have purchased my own Bobcat E32 mini excavator to assist where possible.
Pretty ambitious project, but a great site if you have water flow in a drought! Lucky you. I have never heard of a November drought around here, but we are in one. Not fun.
The main thing that concerns me is how much water flows through the property on wet years. I was able to observe a 1" rainfall on the property shortly after purchasing it, however the ground is so dry I think it soaked up most of it. Ive talked to the farmer who farms the surrounding 500 acres and he said that it doesn't flood big. When I was ripping out fences I did find evidence of debris on the fences. However the fence was acting like a choke point and holding the water back. I removed 3 different fences burried in the muck at the stream exit to the property.
I have been digging on my own with my Excavator, sampling the soil types around the property. Ive dug linered ponds on other properties with both an Excavator and Skid loader, but have never had to move the dirt very far out of the way, and I can see that without a dump truck I have some logistical issues. Trying to build that size of pond with my mini excavator would definetly take some time, so I am glad the contractor will dig it for the free dirt.
Its amazing when you say "free dirt" how fast you can get a hole dug. They made a bunch of progress in January, 300 tandem loads hauled, but its been a record wet spring/summer and they haven't been able to get the trucks going through the wet pasture.
