Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - How to prevent sand loss on beach

Hi everyone. I'm new here. We dug a 5 acre lake last summer and are waiting for it to fill. We added two large beaches with landscape fabric on each. I have read a few other threads of some people creating berms at the base of their beach to help prevent sand loss. I am getting close to running out of time for getting a berm put in but noted that some users have used concrete blocks but that makes me nervous since I will be having a pier pretty close to my beach. Could I not just pile a 12 inch clay berm instead along the bottom of the beach and pack that down? I presume there would also need to be a cut or groove somewhere in the middle of the berm to allow water runoff from the beach. Otherwise I would guess there would be some erosion. Any tips are welcome!

Diverting water around the beach sounds like a good idea to prevent rain from washing additional water down the beach area. Below is a link to a youtube video of the lake as well as some images to show additional detail. Once the lake is full, I will have about 20' of beach above the water line and another 20-30' below. My dock will extend into the water with one side on the shallow "beach" side and the other will be deep. I will see if we can dig out some additional dirt closer to the beach to get it deeper. It sounds like even a berm won't make that much difference. I could try to bring in some rip rap to build the berm with instead of using clay. I don't know if I could get river rock. I will dam the top side of the beach to route water around the beach area. I'm guessing I'll be losing sand regardless. Also note that this project ended late fall and I have not yet been able to stabilize the soil around the lake by planting grass. Any other ideas are welcome!

YouTube Video of Lake!


Both beaches


Beach 1 (see blue dashes to indicate berm placement); Also see "L" shape drawing for future dock placement.


Beach 1 (different angle)


Beach 2


Beach 2 (different angle)


Here is an image showing an inlet to the lake from a road tile. This runoff is strictly from 20 acres of wooded field and not farm ground.


Additional image showing an inlet to the lake.

@ESSHUP

I noticed you are a fellow Hoosier. I live just south of Fort Wayne. Maybe I'll have to come visit!