Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Daming a ravine

I have a ravine that has lots of woods in it. I have a few Springs that would be able to put water in it. Is it OK to just damn it up and let the trees and everything else rot? I could probably get in there and cut and burn a lot of it out but just wanted to know how it would affect it as I fill it up and stock it. I would say it is probably going to be 1 acre large And 10 to 12 feet deep. The area is about 300 feet above sea level it is the highest area around there. So there is not a lot of runoff from other areas.

I was actually going to take some dirt from the top of the ravine and push it that way towards the dam. It will be a skinny pond but a long one. But it will have quite a bit of depth to it I thought on the end where I was going to put the damn I could get an excavator and dig a lot of that out deeper and put it up there which should take care of the root problem from leaks? I will have a dozer here next weekend but I was concerned it may be a little too wet to get down in there. I was going to try to do most of the work from the top and the sides of the ravine. I even wonder how much the leaks will matter since I have several springs feeding it.