For my first pond: 1) Quality private fishery 22) To provide safe, fresh fish as food 24) A fun place to gather with family and friends 5) To attract wildlife for hunting 3) Ornamental landscaping
Second pond: 5) To attract wildlife for hunting 8) Grow-out pond (to raise young fish for transfer) 6) To attract wildlife for viewing and/or preservation 11) To study all of nature and/or biology 2) To enhance land value
These are my reasons right now. It would be interesting to ask folks who currently have a pond to list the original reason they built a pond versus the current reaasons they like their pond. I bet they differ quite a bit. For instance the reasons I had for my first pond before I built it were: 3) Ornamental landscaping 2) To enhance land value 23) Water source for fire fighting 4) Provide affordable and convenient water frontage real estate
Note that the reasons at first were nothing but practical. Since then I've discovered the true value of ponds. Maybe I was just trying to trick my wife into letting me build the pond, yeah, that's it, that's what I did!
