Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site 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 would PERSONALLY take out the trees. If oaks are involved, they have tannins that are lethal to fish. Oaks must be pushed away or burnt. I didn’t and killed everything I stocked. Then pumped it dry. Had to start praying for rain all over again.

Wow. Thank you. Looks like I will have a lot of work to do. That is most of what it is. Maybe I can just cut them down and burn them right there where they are

Unless you have a lot more time than money...it's much faster and easier to have the dozer push and pile the trees for burning compared to dealing with them by hand. I'm not pond builder, but I would be concerned about what needs to be done to the bottom of the soon-to-be pond. A ravine typically has a gravel bedded runoff creek which may need to be addressed to avoid pond leaks and left over large rotting roots from the trees may also be a path for water to get to any underground gravel veins...something to look into with a pond building expert.

Where would your dirt be coming from to build the dam? most of the time they take it from the pond bottom and sides, and it will take quite a bit, point is, if that is the case the stumps gotta go anyway, they cant cost effectively push dirt up to the dam going around stumps. food for thought.

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.

I am in East Texas. Plenty of good red clay right here on my property

Butch, you have to clear the area where the dam will go, dig down to get to good soil and put a keyway in, and compact it to eliminate the dam from leaking. You can't just pile dirt up on top of other dirt and have it hold water.

If the area you are putting the pond at is the highest area around, where will the water to fill it come from? If the springs in the area will be under water when the pond is full, be aware that springs don't have a one way valve on them, once water pressure in the pond gets to be greater than the water pressure in the spring, water will flow OUT of the pond in the spring area.

I won't get into my whole pond build and problems but if you can, I would at least try to strip off all the top soil and compact the whole bottom.

Correct. If you don't strip off all the topsoil you will have excess nutrients in the pond from the start, and if you don't compact the bottom of the pond you may have a leak, and fixing that leak will typically cost more than the whole initial pond build.

Looks like I have a lot to think about. I am newly retired and will have lots of time on my hand. I might have to make a temp dam first so I can get the water stopped so I can dig my other one. I am clearing land there now. I am going to have tons of big pine tree stumps. Can a push them in there and cover them. Then build the dam after that. Or is that crazy. I can burn them. That was my first plan.

You can push them and cover them in an area that won't be covered with water. As they decompose they will shrink in size and there will be a depression in the ground.

If you are going to do all this yourself, you really should buy some reading material.

1) Just Add Water

2) Pond Planning, Design and Construction

If you build it wrong and it leaks, you will spend more $$ to re-do it right than all the $$ you spent doing it wrong.

Thank you I will definitely read those articles. I’m probably just gonna bite the bullet and rent a excavator for a month and do a few other things around there.