Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Removing trees?

My experience has been that most native trees larger than four inches in diameter have root balls too large to remove without compromising the integrity of most dams. I really struggled with the concept until a team of engineers explained it to me. They were looking at a project in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and trying to decide how to handle an old dam, whether to leave it, tear it down, or clean it up. The landowner was preparing the land for development within the next ten years, and wanted to get the engineering out of the way. The dam had a number of trees, hackberry, bois'd arc, elm and native cedar. There were big willows along the shore. The dam wasn't covered with trees, but there were enough to cause concern. As I listened, then asked questions, these three guys told me that trees could be removed, but to look at the drip line. Roots extend to the drip line of most trees. Removing the tree and its roots would leave a weak spot in the dam, akin to punching a hole in an inner tube. Patch it with other dirt, and that's what you have, a patched dam. Patches are weak links in the chain. For that particular dam, that would have meant 8-10 patches. As I look around the countryside, if a dam has trees, it usually has more than one. So, that's how I have come to the conclusion to trim trees bigger than 4 inches in diameter. I am certainly open to more knowledge than this particular brain possesses, and would embrace anything I have missed. In the mean time.....