Thanks for your thoughts. I'm mainly trying to calibrate my brain to be able to take care of the most important things first, then work on others as I see the pond responding. The pond area was all wetlands (about a 1/2 acre) near where I am building a home (the non-wetlands part of a 4 acre rural lot). Under an Army Corps of Engineers wetland permit i excavated the central part of the wetlands 4 years ago for the pond. My goal is to disturb the property as little as possible and maintain the pond as naturally as possible. There are several trees nearby and I have already realized that I need to remove/prevent as much of the fall leaf litter as possible from affecting the pond. I will be adding aeration soon when power comes to the house site. The current question was posed to help determine if harvesting potential nutrients from the "natural" wetlands growth, vs leaving nature alone, was going to be necessary. From your comments I believe I will watch and see. I'm not looking for a manicured lawn down to a thin line of pond-edge plants. I much prefer watching nature do its thing. I will likely weed-whack a few key areas and shoreline access points, but hope to avoid doing more than that.