Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat My Dug Pond Project

Here's a little background on the property which leads to how I plan to get water in the pond and maintain it;

My crop field (37 acres) has a conventional field tile system that drains into a underground storage tank and then is pumped into the ditches and then carried away. This is necessary because my field sits lower than the surrounding ditches and this system has been in place for 30+ years dating back to when my Grandfather originally cleared the property.

Sooo...I have what we will call a sump pump on steroids (4" electric float operated) already on the property and I have 37+ acres of water shed that feed it.

My plan from this point forward...I will get all of the habitat items in the pond basin and then temporarily replumb my pump and push the water from my field tile system into my pond basin. This will fill the pond up much faster than relying on mother nature to fill it. My guess is that by November I will have a full pond if not sooner depending on rain. Some of my neighbors ponds have taken six to eighteen months to fill up naturally, so since I have the pump at my disposal, I'm not waiting that long.

Once the pond is filled, it should hold within a foot of my high water elevation based on the natural water shed and rain that will be feeding it. In the coming years, if I have more evaporation than influx and the pond level continues to drop, I will then hard pipe my field sump pump and use that water to keep the pond filled on a as needed basis.

I know it's not necessarily a good idea to utilize field runoff as your water shed because of all the chemicals and fertilizers that are used on the field. However, I also plan to put all of my field into CRP with Warm Season Grass which will not need any fertilizer to establish or maintain in the future. I will likely get a little fertilizer load when I first fill it up, but all that should do is give the aquatic life a jump start and move the natural process along a little quicker.

Based on the ponds I've looked at in the area, most have very little water shed and hold water quite well.