Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help How close is too close to the edge?

Many of you know my husband, Theo Gallus. I am asking for assistance in serious discussion my husband and I are having. How close to the edge of the pond is it safe to mow with a 42 hp tractor and a six foot bushhog? Or even a riding lawn mower?

I have been informed that I am not a pond expert. So I am asking you, the experts that he respects, how close to the edge of the pond is it safe to mow with a tractor?

We have 2 dug ponds built in 2001 and 2007. The banks were steep sloped when constructed. I know that we have snapping turtles and muskrats. We also have a breeding population of channel cats. Mr Gallus insists on mowing around the ponds parallel to the water approximately 6 inches to 2 feet from the edge with the bushhog and even closer with the riding mower. He sees no danger in doing this. I, on the other hand, seriously freak out when he does this. If the bank collapses, and he and the tractor go in the pond and he is trapped, I will not be able to get anyone there fast enough to saves him (plus he will have done a number on the diesel tractor). I bought him a sickle bar mower to use, but he refused since someone on the forum convinced him that I was trying to cut his fingers off by making him use it. (I grew up mowing hay with a sickle bar and still have all my fingers). I do hire and pay the neighbor kid to weed wack around the ponds twice a year. I also know that my strong reaction to him mowing so close to the edge stems from having a widowed neighbor die after he mowed too close to the edge of his creek and the bank collapsed pinning him under the tractor.