On my daughter’s four acres there is (or was now it’s a muddy puddle) a spring fed pond
(40x80 ish) sandwiched between two heavily wooded ridges. There are maybe 4 or 5 small islands with 1-2 trees on them in there. I’ve decided that with a pair of waders and a pitchfork I can make myself useful by clearing out the 30 year accumulation of leaves and branches from the pond and stream. I may only work in ten minute increments, but I’ve got the time and it should be excellent exercise, with potentially neat results.
Anyway, the ridge between the house and the pond is conveniently topped with a lot of granite outcroppings, also conveniently pointed back down towards the pond. I imagine that with a hefty enough pump I can both aerate and move water in a hose to the top of the ridge to then cascade scenically back into the pond. I’ve been here for a year and seen plenty of frogs, but not one turtle or fish. Ducks land and swim for a minute before heading right out, and no deer ever drink from the pond. Is it too acidic from the oak, birch, poplar and maple leaf buildup? What else should I be considering before I get dirty? I’m going to get chest high waders so i don’t get too icky, and i have a mosquito helmet thing so I’ll be protected while I rake and shovel the stuff.
And is it silly to be excited about this project lol?! We do have a tractor ftr, but i don’t want to kill little creatures if I can help it, and I need a project with which I don’t need help. I assume I’ll be done in the year 2029 or so…
are Water Moccasins common in your area?
Nah, south central MA. Maybe snapping turtles could be in there, that’s possible.
Don’t get sucked down into the mud so that you can’t get yourself unstuck. Almost happened to me once when I was out cutting pussy-willows in the spring, I was so preoccupied with what I was doing I didn’t realize I was slowing sinking until I tried to move.
You’re so right! It’s like quick sand, or quick mud. And that smell of rotting leaves is definitely a unique and unforgettable scent. I grew up clamming in salt water at low tide, so this brings me back.
I used to go clamming with my dad when I was tiny, the mud worms (or whatever they were) scared the bejeebers out of me!
I salute you, suz, for taking on this project. You don’t mention if the sides are ramped. It might be worth putting in a load of gravel to create an easy in and out as you’ll be hauling muck. Said muck will have to be dumped somewhere such that a good rainstorm doesn’t just wash it back in.
I’m so lazy that I’d bring in a backhoe to do at least half of it.
Waders can be dangerous… turn into an anchor with a bad step. I’d wonder about blue green algae perhaps too if it’s that sluggish. I’d be more tempted to dump in rock/gravel and some straw bales. I think that with circulation would make the bottom stuff do what it’s supposed to do and still get more clear water.
40x80 is certainly doable by hand for someone with time. Especially with treed islands occupying part of the space. But with the trees and their leaves remaining you could be looking at an endless battle to maintain a nice pond feature rather than a swamp.
Is the feeder spring still active?
“Snakes. Why’d it have to be … snakes?”
That would be my only concern. I might just get some water shoes and do it bare legs. It should be warm enough now.
As for deer not drinking; it’s unlikely it’s too acidic and more likely there is just an easier to access location. I live in NY so similar climate.
I’d have the water tested before doing anything.
A pond rake or pitchfork is good for cleaning out larger debris. But for what has already broken down and become muck, you’re fighting a losing battle.
Same, along with the OP’s plan to make a waterfall. Gravel, large rocks, bags of barley, aeration, and several additions of beneficial bacteria. Then I’d add some big plecos, pond loaches, and catfish to clean up debris and algae. Probably snails too.
Can you get info and maybe help from something like a county Extension agent? They should at least know the area and may have free plants, wildlife, or the like.
Just coming back to this - I had a pond dug on my property in a place that had been a seasonal swamp. So, it’s not spring fed, but trickle fed from underground water tables. Now that it is 15 feet deep it always holds water, but when it was just a swamp it would be dry during the summer.
If you don’t introduce fish, you won’t just have them. And to do that you would need a succession of wildlife in order to maintain a food chain. So you would need to introduce snails or crayfish, for example, and then small feeder fish, and then larger fish, etc.
It’s not likely that the reason it is without fish is because it’s not aerated, just that there has been no introduction and potentially it is not sustainable. If you consider it a “muddy puddle” now, it might not be spring fed, and may not be a sustainable fish pond. But frogs are good, too. And just because you don’t see turtles doesn’t mean they are not there. I usually spot a snapping turtle or two a year, but not frequently. But they are definitely there.
At our previous place, we “uncovered” a pond in a natural depression, making it about 6-8 feet deep, maybe 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was rain fed and had no real outlet, but the soil composition there was solid clay, so it held water well. First season, I tossed in a dozen 3-for-a-dollar feeder goldfish in the hopes of keeping the mosquito population down. Shortly thereafter, bullfrogs moved in from a nearby swamp. Cattails poked their stems up, ducks would stop by and the water stayed pretty clear. I didn’t see the goldfish again until a year and a half later in the spring. I looked out one day and the surface of the pond was a bright red-orange. When I got close, I could see that it was dozens and dozens of goldfish warming themselves in the sun. Very cool!
By the next year or so, when I was collecting a water sample for my sister’s biology class, I found that we had sticklebacks and some kind of branching water weed. As time went on, otters and osprey would go fishing back there as the goldfish became ginormous. It was fun to see it develop it’s own ecosystem.
NOTE: the goldfish couldn’t get out beyond the pond so we weren’t invading any native areas.
We need to see before and after pictures.
If you have access to power by the pond, look into an aquablaster, sometimes called weedblaster. Muck is very heavy and hard to move. Gravel will just sink right through it eventually. An aquablaster type machine will blast the muck away, as well as weeds and algae. They are very pricey though.
