 Add a Pond to Your Property
by
Neil
Shelton PAGE 2 of
2 <BACK
continued from
page one While this can vary
broadly
depending on all the variables, one eight-hour day should get you a small
pond, two days a good-sized one and four or five days ought to yield
something in the small-lake category (one-acre plus).
The first step is to have 'dozer
clear away everything, including trees, stumps, roots and sod from the
pond site and "borrow" area where you'll be taking out material to add to
the dam core.
When that's done, you need to
stake off the dam site and remove the topsoil down to well within the
subsoil. Push the top-soil aside for later use.
Also remove and stockpile the
topsoil from the borrow area. Ideally, you'll leave one
stockpile of topsoil below the dam and one above it.
Once the topsoil has been removed, excavate a trench
directly under where the dam is to be. (See diagram above)
This trench should span the entire length of the dam and up the supporting
hillsides to the height of the spillway.
If you want to use the pond for stock watering, it's
strongly recommended that you run a pipe from inside the pond out to a
watering trough downhill from the pond. If you want to add a
water tank supply as shown, next dig a ditch perpendicular to the core
trench or "cut-off" for the supply pipe. Remember that the
ditch should be below the frost-line when it emerges from under the dam
and the pipe used should be at least 1-1/2 inches in diameter.
This ditch provides a good place to put a drain pipe
in your pond, a handy thing to have as you may want to completely drain
the pond on infrequent occasions. Use a six or eight inch pipe
for this.
When the pipes are in place it's time to start
building up the dam. Use the best clay for the core, the next best
for the front (water) side of the dam and what's left for the back side.
Note again the diagram above: the front side of the dam should be at a 3:1
slope and the back side at a 2:1 slope. Steeper than that and you'll
have problems with erosion.
The finished dam should be about three feet higher
than the floor of the spillway, and at least 8 feet wide at the top, but
make it wider if you're able as it is extremely handy to be able to drive
a tractor or pick-up along the crest of the dam. Twelve-foot widths,
or wider, are recommended.
SPILLWAY CONSTRUCTION
If your dam is going to fail, it will most likely do
so at the spillway, so mind how your spillway is constructed.
Above all, the spillway needs to be level at its
mouth. Ideally, only a very shallow stream of water should move
across the spillway so fish don't swim out during heavy rains. Make
sure the spillway is wide enough to keep this stream at three inches or
shallower and so long and gently sloping that the water moves as slowly as
possible, again to discourage erosion.
Depending on the amount of watershed and the
weather, even a good-sized pond may fill up with water in just one heavy
storm, or it may take weeks or months. When it's half full or so,
you can begin looking for fish to stock your new pond. In this area,
fingerlings become available from the feed stores in the late spring to
summer.
|
