Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat leaving trees/islands in new ponds vs. dozer out?

Might be matter of personal preference, but here's mine:

Islands take up valuable pond space
Islands can erode and silt in pond
Islands are hard to mow/manage despite original good intentions

I've seen a handfull of aesthetically pleasing islands that appeared to be real assets to the pond. I've seen many more that end up being overgrown and steadily eroding headaches.

Trees left on an island might die due to roots being saturated with water.
Trees left on island might compromise clay barrier with roots
Trees left on islands [willows or cottonwoods] that like wet feet will suck tons of precious pond water.

Obviously it's my personal opinion to excavate the entire pond and remove all trees and not create/leave islands. I don't like leaving trees in the main pond as I fear rotting roots may create fissure/leak issue down the road. I have fished many ponds with tons of trees left and they didn't appear to have leak issues, but with my bad luck on leaking ponds and cost associated to irrigate with my well it's my PERSONAL choice to remove all trees, install clay liner, and eliminate any potential risks.

I'm with you scratching my head on the compaction question for the entire pond. In my main pond contractors built a dam, compacted some areas, but left my flooded draws alone. I think this is a fairly common practice, but raised concerns with me like yourself: If those areas left alone [native topsoil/not compacted-worked upon] what if they are porous and result in a leak? What I can say is any new ponds I ever build or consult upon I will recommend compacting ALL areas of the pond, including the banks, to help ensure a good seal.

Again, this is just my personal opinion and what works for me specifically. If you wanted an island I would instead create a floating platform you can ferry across the pond from which to fish, swim, ect. You can hang pvc structure from beneath the dock to provide additional habitat for your fishery. Floating dock/ferry project would be very cool.