Earth Pond Questions - Early Spring Projects

Hello Ponders and fellow Country-Folk!

I bought a house two years ago with an backyard earth pond that looked
like it needed some work. I believe it was dugout in the 1950's as a
sauna pond for the prior Finnish inhabitants. It has a small creek as
an inlet and a culvert as an outlet. It is about 40 feet across and
is pretty much tear dropped in shape. The depth is 15 feet and I
believe it is spring fed because the water stays very cold even in the
warmest of northern Wisconsin's summer days. I planted some trout and
they have survived well. The pond is teaming with insect and frog
life. Unfortunately it is pretty mucky from years of service.

When I began work the pond had several tag alders (some submerged)
along the inlet bank and grass from the embankment was growing out
into the pond. I cut the tag alders and mowed as much of the grass as
possible, but the pond looked as though it was half empty, like a
partially eaten bowl of soup. I thought I could raise the water level
by building a small box out of treated lumber and driving it into the
bank in front of the culvert. This actually worked quite well, and
raised the water up four feet last summer. The problem is it is
impossible to stop 100% of the leaks, and it looks like water still is
finding a way under my clay covered box and into the outgoing culvert.
Also, the appearance is unatural, even with the rocks I've covered
the box with. I just hate the culvert. I think they used it so they
could drive a vehicle across the dam, but I have no need to do so.

Now, with the water level down and the pond frozen, I'm thinking of
trying to block off the culvert completely by filling my dam box with
concrete in early spring and trenching a natural earth spillway above
the embankment that runs about 15 feet. I would probably line the
spillway with red clay and then put down landscaping fabric topped
with pea gravel and fieldstones. The hope would be to make something
that looks like a natural cascading creek with a waterfall at the end
that flows off the far side of the embankment. I'm concerned that it
would still find a way to leak into the culvert however, so I'm
debating spending the money to get a backhoe to dig out the culvert
completely.

Questions:

1) Would my concrete idea work? Please, take a guess. Any other
ideas? Should I just spend the money on the backhoe and do it right?

2) Are there any tips for good erosion-proof spillway designs? How
about getting the look I'm after, any thoughts on that?

3) How do I fight the thick underwater grass growing out into my pond?
I've raked, shoveled and pulled up some of it, but it's really heavy
because of the huge root pile that are soaked with sludge water.
Should I just shut up and keep working or is there a smarter way?

4) Is there a cheap way to remove some of the sludge and muck from my
pond without draining it? Would adding sand or gravel help? I just
want swimmers to be able to walk out into the pond without feeling
like swamp thing.

5) Any landscaping ideas to minimize the empty soup-bowl appearance?
Small shrubs that look good on pond edges? Perennial plants/flowers?

Sorry if my questions are vague, I'm new to this exciting hobby and
I'm really just searching for ideas and tips. I'll be watching this
thread and will provide follow ups to any questions and/or comments.
Thank you for taking the time to read my long-winded post.

For an illustration of my "box dam," please go he

http://kory.gilderman.com/boxdam.jpg

"NyQuillama" wrote in message
I bought a house two years ago with an backyard earth pond that looked
like it needed some work. I believe it was dugout in the 1950's as a
sauna pond for the prior Finnish inhabitants. It has a small creek as
an inlet and a culvert as an outlet. It is about 40 feet across and
is pretty much tear dropped in shape. The depth is 15 feet and I
believe it is spring fed because the water stays very cold even in the
warmest of northern Wisconsin's summer days.

Before you do anything else, please contact the DNR (Department of Natural
Resources) nearest you. Wisconsin has various definitions as to whether
waterways are public or private. Just because it might be surrounded by
private land doesn't necessarily mean the pond is private. The DNR is real
fussy about what you do with 'their' water, including the shrubs, brush and
trees surrounding a waterway. Even as small as it is, you need to find out
if you can do anything to it.
I work in zoning and have seen the DNR get involved with some unusual
things. A guy dug a basement and struck water, the hole filled up and
became 'navigable'. He was not allowed to fill it back in and had to let it
remain in it's 'natural' state. He now has a $100,000 30 ft. by 50 ft. pond
and no land to build on.
Sue
Northern Wisconsin
remove YOURPAWS when replying

Judging from what happened to the poor smuck who did involve
the DNR, I'd say do as you please only don't say a word about
it! Guvment run amuck.

Nedra


"Susan" wrote in message
...

"NyQuillama" wrote in message
I bought a house two years ago with an backyard earth pond that looked
like it needed some work. I believe it was dugout in the 1950's as a
sauna pond for the prior Finnish inhabitants. It has a small creek as
an inlet and a culvert as an outlet. It is about 40 feet across and
is pretty much tear dropped in shape. The depth is 15 feet and I
believe it is spring fed because the water stays very cold even in the
warmest of northern Wisconsin's summer days.

Before you do anything else, please contact the DNR (Department of Natural
Resources) nearest you. Wisconsin has various definitions as to whether
waterways are public or private. Just because it might be surrounded by
private land doesn't necessarily mean the pond is private. The DNR is
real
fussy about what you do with 'their' water, including the shrubs, brush
and
trees surrounding a waterway. Even as small as it is, you need to find
out
if you can do anything to it.
I work in zoning and have seen the DNR get involved with some unusual
things. A guy dug a basement and struck water, the hole filled up and
became 'navigable'. He was not allowed to fill it back in and had to let
it
remain in it's 'natural' state. He now has a $100,000 30 ft. by 50 ft.
pond
and no land to build on.
Sue
Northern Wisconsin
remove YOURPAWS when replying

On 2 Feb 2004 09:17:11 -0800, (NyQuillama) wrote:


3) How do I fight the thick underwater grass growing out into my pond?
I've raked, shoveled and pulled up some of it, but it's really heavy
because of the huge root pile that are soaked with sludge water.
Should I just shut up and keep working or is there a smarter way?

what about sterile (triploid) grass carp? from what we've seen of them
down here in Louisiana, one should do it, but I suspect that you'd
have to replace it every year...

ck
--
country doc in louisiana
(no fancy sayings right now)

Hey Charles,

I have trout in the pond, so I don't want grass carp rutting around
stirring up silt and muck. Also, I've read that they will chew on the
water lillies and lotus I plan on planting.

Thanks for the idea though!

On 5 Feb 2004 07:20:23 -0800, (NyQuillama) wrote:

Hey Charles,

I have trout in the pond, so I don't want grass carp rutting around
stirring up silt and muck. Also, I've read that they will chew on the
water lillies and lotus I plan on planting.

Thanks for the idea though!

well, I'm not sure that they rut in the muck...I do know that you have
to be careful about how many you get...as we've had several lakes out
here that were so denuded of vegetation as to loose some of the more
profitable bass and crappie habitat...

ck
--
country doc in louisiana
(no fancy sayings right now)

Hey guys, I've gotten some additional feedback on this from the folks
over at pondboss.com. I thought I'd share the thread with you for
those interested. Maybe someone out there is doing some of the crazy
things I'm doing and would find this interesting/helpful.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimate...;f=20;t=000759