My wife and I own 75 acres of forest land in western North Carolina, and some years ago we dammed up a creek and created a body of water which has a surface area of about 1 1/2 acres, 18 feet deep at the deepest part. It is fed by the creek and by several year-round springs, and it stays full all year round. We have tried to figure out whether we should call this a pond or a lake. It is the second largest body of water in the county. It is deep enough that vegetation does not grow on the bottom in the deep parts. It is man-made. We intend for it to be permanent. We have found various opinions regarding the differences between a pond and a lake. I would like to know whether people reading this forum can help us to decide whether we have a pond or a lake, and what their reasons are. Many thanks for your help.

Welcome David.

Since it is yours you can call it whatever you want. I would call it pond though. To me a lake is a body of water that is 10 acres+ in size.

I think people also consider bodies of water lakes were waves can become a problem due to eroding the banks.

Hello, and welcome to the forum, david (your secret, Pond Boss "Too Many Daves" name is "Shadrack").

Generally, the dividing line between pond and lake wrt size falls notably larger than 1.5 acres - sizes on the order of 10 or 30 acres are often given as the bottom cutoff for a lake.

However, you may find this handy rule-of-thumb useful: "If I own an acre-and-a-half BOW, it's a lake. If you own it, it's a pond."

Can I be Abednego?



This is true.

davatsa, I thought you were Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.

I can't recall where I heard it...think it might have been one of the NRCS offices that I worked with whilst searching for the right property. Anyway, the Illinois tipping point is at 10 ac.

As has been said by others, science has never clearly defined the difference between a pond and a lake. 10 acres in size seems to be the common dividing line, but many ponds in the northeast are 30 plus acres and Great Pond in Maine is over 10 sq miles in size... Some scientist say it isn't the size that matters but as you mentioned in your post the depth. If its deep enough aquatic vegetation can't grow throughout its a lake. Other scientists say if wave action occurs its a lake.

So really, its your body of water, call it what you wish!

Welcome to the forum, add yourself to our Pond Boss Forum Map while you're here.

In my opinion, anything with a man-made dam used to hold water or dug out by man to hold water is a pond or reservoir.... but I often call my man-made BOW a lake anyway. hehe...

This is a good topic. We have 6 "Lakes," all manmade, former gravel pits, they hit water much shallower than expected. More money was made on the development than the gravel. 2 of them under ten acres have zero storm drains (water quality on those is excellent). Mine, which is 9.8 acres (thank goodness, Mich laws consider under 10 acres to be treated under a "Certificate" while over 10 acres have to have a "Permit," and the rules are better for a certificate), they consider the water body to be less significant and impact to the environment. Largest is about 37 acres and the three that flow into each other also have storm drains. My stand alone "Lake" got 3x the storm drains as any other. Our sub is named __________Lakes. Our tax bills say ________Lake Estates - but with the storm drains we really are is spring fed,rain water Retention/Detention ponds, as we collect water and hold it until it drains off through an outflow to the county drainage ditch. The city now likes to point out that we are Detention Ponds, but they never mentioned that the 30+ years they collected taxes on these "Lakes." Go figure.

If a body of water contains under 20,000,000 gallons of water it is a pond.

There are a group of ponds here in San Diego county that are named Santee Lakes. Heck I figure if a county can lie about it why can't I. My pond was named Hidden Lake (it's only between 2 and 3 acres, depending upon the time of year) by the locals so that's how we named our property. Kinda grandiose I know but I figure I'm paying the property taxes and, accordingly, I'm gonna call it what ever I want. When talking about it to folks though I call it a pond.

A GSF breeding pond to be specific.

Rule around here is it's a lake if it is bigger than your neighbors.

JHAP:

I didn't know you were in the Southland. I used to live in a development (Jeffries Ranch)on the East side of O'side, very close to Bonsall.

I wish some of those stocker trout were available here!

So true! One thing that has always made me chuckle about the living in the northeast is just about everything is considered a pond.

Are you saying I have a fat face? I'll take the name...I've been called much, much worse.

If you want to get all scientific, a lake is a naturally made body of water. A pond or a reservoir is a man made structure. For instance, in Missouri, you've probably heard of Bull Shoals Lake, Table Rock Lake or Lake of the Ozarks....not lakes at all....they have dams on them and therefore reservoirs. We actually have no "lakes".

THe most widesprad nomenclature generally refers to ponds greater than 10 acres as a lake. My business, Midwest Lake Management, just sounded better than Midwest Pond Management to me, so I that's the name I chose. I figured it would help in cutting down on the number of phone calls I received from people with water gardens (backyard ponds). It's worked for the most part. The last real lake I was on was in Canada.

I suppose in the real world it doesn't matter, or else I would have chosen a different name for my business!!

I debated for quite awhile whether to choose HB Pond Management or HB Lake Management. I went with Pond Management and I think it has paid off because most of my sales are to folks with 1 acre ponds or less.

On the other hand, most of my services are for clients with 10 acre lakes or bigger. Been thinking about making a separate division called HB lake products, but I guess I technically should switch to HB Lake Management and HB Pond Products??? Oh well, I guess I dont need to be gramatically correct?

Small world. I believe it is Rad on our forums who now lives in Thailand use to live in Oceanside. Our family (my grandfather & grandmother) came to San Diego in 1923. Unfortunately it's changed a lot since then.

If I get to fish in it,its a lake,if you wont let me fish there,its a pond,and a pretty poor one at that.Now thats being scientific.
And oh by the way,welcome to the forum.

I got it straight from the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality Rep at the MLSA conference; MICHIGAN LAW IS THIS: ANY BODY OF WATER OVER FIVE ACRES IS CONSIDERED A LAKE.