Pond construction

[Daver]

I am thinking about helping someone build 1 or 2 relatively small ponds to be used primarily for wildlife watering. The soil in this area is generally very conducive to pond construction, being of high clay content. Can a couple of weekend warriors make a go of it by simply pushing some dirt around and backing up a ditch or two? I would anticipate installing some sort of drainage pipe to provide runoff relief. Does the bottom of a ditch need to be sealed or packed with clay?

Any advice or help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[all4s]

First off, are you getting cost share $$$ on this project? There are usually funds available for wetlands restoration but, It sounds like your project is not that big. I don't like colverts, riser tubes etc.. They are hard to seal up and the first thing to blow out in a heavy rain or flood. I would recomend an overflow ditch. A slow trickle of water is much harder on a dam than a gully wash. As a rule, set the ditch the distance of the dam grade. away from the dam grade and make the lenght of the ditch as least as long as the pond. What Equipment are you using? A 150+hp tractor with a pull behind scraper works great.

Kill every muskrat you see, they love new dam grades.
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