TEXAS715,
This may sound crazy to you, but its true. When renovating one old pond, I found pine tree roots (from a pine that was about 10 or 15 feet from the back side of the dam) well into the dam itself..and yes, they actually did go slightly uphill to reach a water cavity inside the dam that was created by Nutria. That tree was sucking water from that cavity.
It got me to thinking, so I looked around carefully and observed several trees in proximity to the dam that looked much healthier than other trees....obviously they were also tapping into the pond water through the dam. Needless to say, those trees are no longer present.
I'm not saying necessarily that those trees caused structural damage to the dam, but am for sure saying that they sucked water out of the pond. In dry summers, that much water can be critical.
