It still gets down to money. even after our turkey shoot season and after all dues and fee's are paid we only have $46,000. While we pick up a little from functions, not much, that is what we have to operate on for the year.
There is not a constant or consistent flow of water into the pond. Once the spring rains are done that is about it. So, at that point, what we have is what we have. Once that farmer plows and plants there is no more flow.
One thought I had was to remove the trees and deepen and widen that area to about two feet deep. That would allow a large amount of plants that sequester phosphorus to grow and would slow any water causing it to drop its silt. Not that there is any really.
On the farmers side of that tree line is a depression. That tree line is a hump. Most of any water coming in filters through that hump. A good deal of it gets diverted into our basin drain on the north east of our property because it comes too fast to get through that hump. Only when the ground is frozen do you see surface water running. I sampled it through a coffee filter, no silt to speak of. As soon as the ground thaws all the water actually comes in subsurface. Of course we do loose a good deal of the potential with that.
I had considered that if we open up that little cove area and deepen it to create a a bog then we could place a barrier and walkway along the edge of the pond. Let's say that is 6 feet wide of compacted soil. Then we could place a basin drain on the farmers side of that hump and run the pipe to the barrier. Then the pick ups on the pipes going through the barrier to the pond would be on the east side edge. That way the water coming in would have to back flow through the bog before coming into the pond. That would serve us, and also the farmer because we would be getting rid of that water.
Then I thought we could sink a crock with a feeder line next to the pond. That would be on the north west corner. The feeder for that crock could run to the bottom of the pond. Then we would run a 1/2 line across the bottom and through the barrier we built. Even in times of low water that would keep water circulating through the bog.
In researching nutrient sequestration I found that the plant that does it best is pickeralweed. That is what we would encourage in that bog. What is important though is to cut the plants down after they bloom and before they set seed. Then removing the cut plant material. That would, from what I understand, be three cuttings a year.
But get something like that through, pretty hard. Heck, it took 4 months for me to get aeration in the pond. A major renovation, not likely.
Last edited by garryc; 04/21/14 10:24 AM.
