Hi everyone my name is John and im from a little spot on the map called Panther Lake in Oswego County New York. i found this forum on Tractor by net this morning.
I have a small farm pond maybe 150 feet square and since we got rid of our beef cows some 12 years ago the pond has become over run with cat tails and small water plants. It is a real eye sore and we have aquired some BIG black water snakes reaching 8 feet in length now. I Hate snakes of anykind. Well i want to clean this pond out and make it so you can see the water again. There is about 4 1/2 feet of water in it now and is spring feet from the bottom, Seems to be a lot of silt in the bottom now, any ideas? I'd like to hear some. . .John

Welcome to the forum!

Quickest and easiest would be to drain it and start digging. You could make it bigger and deeper while eliminating the vegetation. I have a similar situation but with a smaller pond. This is what I would do if I could spend the money on it. Just do a lot of research on building/renovating a pond before you go crazy with the backhoe. A hole in the ground is pretty easy to get. A good pond isn't and you might do more harm than good.

I can tell you from experience that cattails are tenacious. The herbicides that many people on this forum will recommend are restricted in NY.

The following is a quote from the DEC when I asked about this subject: "Cattails will likely need to be pulled by hand or excavated with machinery. If you want to use an herbicide, you can hire a certified applicator to use an approved herbicide. See the DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8530.html"

So now that I've dished out a bunch of doom and gloom, what are your goals for the pond? Is 4.5 feet full pool depth or is it down a couple feet? Are there fish it it? Do you care about fish?

Well, years ago the pond had fish, lots of bullhead (and i'm not talking about the owner now ) and some bass. The pond got real low one year and a herion snatched all the fish, like i said the cows left and apparently the pond just died. Its got a lot of snakes and a couple of big snapping turtles and lots of frogs. I love to hear the frogs croak at night.
I have been toiling with the idea of a pump, drawing down the water and going in with my loader and clearing the bottom. Did a bit of scraping around this spring and there is hard bottom under the silt. Going to be a lot of dump trailer loads with this project.
Right now thats the depth and water is down quite a bit. No snow last winter iscausing a problem with water level in the ponds. . . .John

Knowing a little about Oswego's geology, do you hit bedrock on the bottom of the pond? There is quite the outcropping of shallow sandstone around you, so be careful to not hit that layer unless you are in a low area where the water is coming up through it and not down into it. If the latter, you may need to clay-line the pond to prevent leakage.

A good idea is to pick up the book offered on this site "Perfect Pond, Want One?"

First things first; dig a few test holes near/around the pond to see what is really down there if you plan to expand and/or excavate. You will then get a good idea if that sandstone or perhaps limestone is closer to the surface than you think and that you have the right soils to make it worth the investment.

And the snakes? You will probably still have them after a clean-out, but they are likely being forced to your pond after their usual haunts have dried up.

8' snake?? In new York? Am i the only one who read that..

nope, I read that as well and cleaned my gun!!

LOL!! I know thats right HF! Makes we want to go and check my ammo box for sure!! Make sure I got enough just in case!!

Bunch of pansies ;-).

I used to catch them and keep them as pets as a kid. Almost all snakes in upstate NY are harmless. 8' is rather large, but these guys are common near Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands. Mostly eat frogs, tadpoles, and the occasional duckling. They are a bear to catch as they like to dive into the muck when chased, but that never stopped me, much to the poor snake's chagrin.

The largest I ever caught was close to 6' and when they are that long, they put up a good wrestling match. Hard to grip them.

I say leave them alone, they will move on, but to each his own.

LOL!! The real problem here in Texas is the cottonmouths. I do not give them a second chance, if they are anywhere around me or my family, they are in my sights. The common harmless water snakes do play a part in the ecosystem and I leave them alone if they leave me alone.

But you have to admit, 8 feet, that is a darn big snake!

Brian,
I figured you would have said rattlesnakes. The 8 ft snake story reminds me of a guy bushhogging a field several years ago here close by and hit something. Turned around to look and seen a snake raise its head up out of the weeds. Poor fella tore off to the house on the tractor and called animal control. They showed up and found a dead 11 ft. python! Come to find out it had escaped from a neighbors house back in the spring of that year. I think the local police chief has the skin of it tanned.

Rattlesnakes are out west. Around our part of Texas, we have copperheads and cottonmouths.

And 11 feet is worse than 8 feet!! With 11 feet, I might have to reload