not really. I am thinking an excavator is probably the only way to clear it.
Depending on the type of equipment used, and the depth of the muck, will determine how long it needs to be mostly water free. No experienced operator is going to want to drive a tracked or rubber-tired piece of equipment into deep muck.
Then, you or you contactor will have to do something with the multiple cubic yards of that muck. For the most part it is anerobic (devoid of oxygen). It isn't going to useful as garden or field ammendents as-is.
After our pond cleanout began, it was amazing to me that the dozer was driving on solid ground in the pond with no muck on one side (having already cleaned that), and up past the top of the tracks on the other side. The clay on the bottom was so impervious that it was as if he was digging a new pond. It may not be like that for other cases, but it was here.
We spread the muck roughly below one end of the pond, allowed it to dry for a year, then smothed it out with a small dozer. It is now growing hay.
