Fish 'n Chips, thanks for your helpful reply. #1 goal for this pond is hard to identify that easily. It is many-fold, i.e., simply to have a healthy little BOW right here below the house for us to enjoy aesthetically; to be able to fish and swim in. Stock watering is a given out of it, but it doesn't affect the water quality in the slightest. Only a few goats do not create much for any issues here, and for hay reasons, we're considering going down to two goats total for the winter. A quick note of this particular BOW: I haven't measured gpm input yet, but there is so much fresh water flowing through this pond it negates any biological additive measure for algae control for example.
I don't know if swimming in this pond will become a reality any time soon. That will require a GREAT deal of digging out I expect, as nobody would want to let their feet drop down into mostly Godawful smelling grey clay mud/muck that resembles glue more than anything.
You are very correct in that where/how my pond is situated seriously limits options for modifying it much. I imagine difficulty in having a sizeable excavator at the north end, where the solar panel aerator system is. That is the largest area nearest the drainpipe. So, if the deepest part of the pond became instead nearest the paved road on the south side (right side in photo), would a siphon drain really suck muck to the drain pipe on the other end of the pond?
How long do you think it would take to drain muck as you describe? If only a matter of hours, I could lay a big pipe across the neighbor's driveway along side the pond and best case scenario let it fertilize our pasture on the other side of his road.
After all that, I'd still sure appreciate some opinions on any benefit to clearing out all the vegetation at the water's edge all around the pond. Cattails, LOTS of thick grass, willows, etc. I think I will have this done anyway, again, for aesthetic reasons if no other. I know all this vegetation provides little members of the food chain to be plentiful and available to the aquatic and other ecosystems, and it will doubtless grow back quickly. If anything seems insufficient for providing habitat for frogs, tadpoles, etc., I'll create some with a few pallets or something.
Thanks again!
