No worries, I appreciate the candid feedback. I do want to clarify though as I think you may have misunderstood a bit. I think we have the same attitude actually. I may have not conveyed it well. Modifying what's there is exactly what I don't want to do. I don't want to destroy the woods, damage the creek, or the existing pond in any way. I have zero intention of disturbing the flow of water as it currently exists.
I'd have to get into aerial photos and such to really explain the layout. But, in a nutshell, what's going on is I have a lot of water flowing through the property, more water than is currently being stored. I just want to build an additional pond so there is more permanent water, for fish and animals. And it also brings water to the center of the property rather than concentrated only on the corner.
What I'm proposing is that at the head of the creek, where the water currently pools up on top of normally dry ground, turning that into an inlet for a 1+ acre pond. In other words, in addition to feeding the creek/forest like it does now, it would also feed into a pond that goes in the opposite direction. The pond area I have in mind is dry ground without any standing water - ever. A 1 acre pond circular shaped is about 236ft total diameter, right? This would all be dry ground that should be easy to dig. The only area that might be a little wet is just at the northern tip, the "inlet" to the pond which would build into the area where water currently pools up. We're talking about an area that is maybe 15-20ft in size. And even that area is dry most of the time. A few weeks after a rain and the standing water left has all been sucked up by the ground. Even with digging down, we'd only be starting out with a 3:1 grade or something alone those lines around that point, so even below surface if it's a little soggy there isn't much to deal with.
Here's a sketch if this helps (not to scale).
The pond would be created in an area that is heavily wooded, but mostly with smaller trees. Very thick cluster of elm and mesquite, thousands of trees with the trunks separated by just a few feet. Sort trees. Here and there is a good sized tree, but mostly in this 1 acre area I have in mind it's a thorny jungle you have to crawl through with garden clippers. Literally impossible to even stand up and walk through it. And for the most part this area is very flat.
The idea is that the new pond (shape, size, geographic direction) would be designed in such a way that it doesn't interfere with the existing woods/creek/pond in any way. It won't disturb the beautiful oaks or other tall trees. And I would only do it based on the result of watershed study confirming the volume of water moving around and ability to support new pond + existing pond. From visual observation it definitely will support some kind of pond, how large is something that the math would need to bear out. Perhaps a full acre is ambitious. Perhaps I could support even bigger. Even if I could handle something much bigger, 1-1.5 would be more than enough for me I think.
Based on the size of the overall property though, about 25 acres, a 1 acre pond is a pretty small fraction. Respectable size, but certainly not disturbing the existing land features
Rather than shaping things in a perfectly round or square way, it would be a unique kind of shape that doesn't touch any of the nice trees. Essentially putting a pond on top of brush trees that I'd probably want to clear out anyway. Certainly thin out. This thick area also has an epidemic of briars and thorny vines that needs to be cleaned up. One gets cut up pretty bad just trying to move through there. Getting all that cleaned up, a nice pond in there, and then continue thinning out the shrub trees in the larger portion of this area would make it a lot more hospitable to wildlife.
