Discovered a pond in the woods - now what

[ourcountryway]

Good morning all. Hopefully the videos loads..
We found this mini pond in our woods it's about 40 ft in diameter. As a winter project I'm clearing all the bramble and brush around the edges. It has naturally eroded an exit path/hole (you will see an old cut black plastic culvert in the video) that follows to the creek so which only allows the pond to fill no more than about 3/4 ft in the center of the pond. My plan and thought is to fill that exit hole which would allow the pond to raise to approximately 6/8 ft in the center and then it will naturally overflow and follow the creek. This is Zone 7B and in the middle of the summer it only retains about a foot of water in the center.
What does HT suggest that would possibly have the pond keep more water during the summer. Do you think the additional 3 ft added will solve the issue? Maybe a 10×10 thick pond liner in the center?
It's shaded by the trees.
I haven't put a camera on it but I see tracks from all species drinking from the pond I'm not sure why they choose it because there's several creeks within 10 to 30 yards of this water.
Thanks for your thoughts!!Wood pond

Disregard the rambling in the video I guess that's what I do when out there by myself Lol..

 

[KY wild]

Good morning all. Hopefully the videos loads..
We found this mini pond in our woods it's about 40 ft in diameter. As a winter project I'm clearing all the bramble and brush around the edges. It has naturally eroded an exit path/hole (you will see an old cut black plastic culvert in the video) that follows to the creek so which only allows the pond to fill no more than about 3/4 ft in the center of the pond. My plan and thought is to fill that exit hole which would allow the pond to raise to approximately 6/8 ft in the center and then it will naturally overflow and follow the creek. This is Zone 7B and in the middle of the summer it only retains about a foot of water in the center.
What does HT suggest that would possibly have the pond keep more water during the summer. Do you think the additional 3 ft added will solve the issue? Maybe a 10×10 thick pond liner in the center?
It's shaded by the trees.
I haven't put a camera on it but I see tracks from all species drinking from the pond I'm not sure why they choose it because there's several creeks within 10 to 30 yards of this water.
Thanks for your thoughts!!Wood pond

Disregard the rambling in the video I guess that's what I do when out there by myself Lol..

Few thoughts.......
I have noticed same thing with wildlife choosing a pond over a stream, I think it is because they can't hear predators with running water, they prefer quiet water.
Yes I would bet filling in the wash out would raise the water year round, 6 to 8 feet would carry throughout summer in most places, in other words most ponds don't drop 6 feet due to evaporation. If you wanted to till in some bentonite it would help seal and is pretty reasonable.
If it was mine and did not need a place for kids to fish then while it was low I would pump it down to dry and remove all the fish which are probably in it. Fish are great predators and will kill all the amphibians and reptiles trying to reproduce in the pond. Most of America the amphibians are on the decline and that pond in the woods would be a great help to many amphibians. Besides my grandkids enjoy dipping out salamanders and tadpoles as much as fishing, they love it, then we put them back.

 

[hillrunner]

I'd put in a culvert at your desired height. Without that, it will wash away again.

 

[ourcountryway]

Few thoughts.......
I have noticed same thing with wildlife choosing a pond over a stream, I think it is because they can't hear predators with running water, they prefer quiet water.
Yes I would bet filling in the wash out would raise the water year round, 6 to 8 feet would carry throughout summer in most places, in other words most ponds don't drop 6 feet due to evaporation. If you wanted to till in some bentonite it would help seal and is pretty reasonable.
If it was mine and did not need a place for kids to fish then while it was low I would pump it down to dry and remove all the fish which are probably in it. Fish are great predators and will kill all the amphibians and reptiles trying to reproduce in the pond. Most of America the amphibians are on the decline and that pond in the woods would be a great help to many amphibians. Besides my grandkids enjoy dipping out salamanders and tadpoles as much as fishing, they love it, then we put them back.

Thank you very much, you're so correct I love to keep it as natural as possible I haven't seen any fish in there , maybe they die when it gets very low.. but mostly reptilians are there. I'll look up the bentonite idea. Thanks for the information.

 

[omicron1792]

That looks man made. Part you are standing on has been built up.

I think it’s cool, but prepare to be dissapointed. Unless you build a pond from scratch they rarely do exactly what you want them to do. Spend some fun time working on it, and be prepared if your work doesn’t work.

That said, you can remove trees around edge. Don’t remove the canopy trees though because sun causes evaporation.

Buy a couple of bags of two part pond sealant and pour in. Well help slow any leaks. With small size it won’t be too much of a project.

Betonite has to be put in when completely dry to work. The two part stuff is what you want.

 

[omicron1792]

SoilFloc Pond Sealant

Soilfloc is a polymer pond sealer that works under water. Easily apply Soilfloc on water surface. It settles to the pond bottom sealing the leaks.

shop.naturalwaterscapes.com

There is a whole message board on ponds that you should post on and get their advice.

 

[ourcountryway]

That looks man made. Part you are standing on has been built up.

I think it’s cool, but prepare to be dissapointed. Unless you build a pond from scratch they rarely do exactly what you want them to do. Spend some fun time working on it, and be prepared if your work doesn’t work.

That said, you can remove trees around edge. Don’t remove the canopy trees though because sun causes evaporation.

Buy a couple of bags of two part pond sealant and pour in. Well help slow any leaks. With small size it won’t be too much of a project.

Betonite has to be put in when completely dry to work. The two part stuff is what you want.

Thanks for the information it very well could be man-made, it's definitely deep within our parcel but it looks almost too perfect to be natural, who knows... but it's a pretty cool find. I did a little research on the Bentonite and maybe during the summer when it's at its lowest I can remove the rest of the water and see if I can make something happen if not I'll just let nature take its course..

 

[SD51555]

What function do you want the pond to serve if you get it to where you want it?

 

[Electrodigical]

I've also read that even with stream noise aside, given the choice between fresh clean water and, mmm.... water filled with "natural goodness" (decomposing plant matter and lord knows what else) , they'll choose the latter.
Maybe it's because it's just what they're used to. Maybe because they associate it with being "safer". Maybe they just like the flavor.

 

[ourcountryway]

What function do you want the pond to serve if you get it to where you want it?

Hey , solely to hold water 365 for the wildlife.

 

[omicron1792]

Hey , solely to hold water 365 for the wildlife.

The soilfloc is the way

 

[Telemark]

I suspect standing water has more nutrients like B12. That might be part of the reason.

 

[SD51555]

Hey , solely to hold water 365 for the wildlife.

That definitely looks like a man made pond. Have you ever dug out there with machinery to see what your subsoil looks like? If you know you've got good clay beneath it, I might just plug your outflows, put in a riser pipe and run it way out past your dam. Use whatever you clean out to plug your holes if it's good enough material that it won't leach through and burst again. It kinda looks like that's what happened the first time it broke, so going down is infinitely easier that going up with dams.

 

[ourcountryway]

That definitely looks like a man made pond. Have you ever dug out there with machinery to see what your subsoil looks like? If you know you've got good clay beneath it, I might just plug your outflows, put in a riser pipe and run it way out past your dam. Use whatever you clean out to plug your holes if it's good enough material that it won't leach through and burst again. It kinda looks like that's what happened the first time it broke, so going down is infinitely easier that going up with dams.

Great suggestion. I've never had any heavy machinery out there, the most I've used is gas post hole digger and it's definitely southern red clay once you get about 12 to18 in down. I like the idea about a riser because I can control the height of it and instead of naturally letting it overflow the top which would eventually begin to erode the top away, now I could control it I really like that. My fishing pond has that setup.

The hole that it currently drains into is about 3 ft deep maybe 24 in wide I've been filling it with dirt muck rocks and stuff that I've been finding.
Maybe I build the riser with some 4 or 6-in PVC continued to fill it with dirt, tamp it, and maybe top that off with bentonite, tamp it, then a couple bag of cement to lock it in place...
I'll get some pics or vid of the hole and overflow.
Thx again

 

[buckdeer1]

I didn't think you had to remove all the water to use bentonite

 

[T-Max]

I won't disagree that opening up the canopy will allow for evaporation, but it will potentially let that dam grass in which will hold the soil better in a big rain event.

 

[SD51555]

If it's clay below, be thinking about whether you're seeping water down, or evaporating water up.

Is there some kind of watershed area that feeds that pond in times of surplus?

 

[Telemark]

I won't disagree that opening up the canopy will allow for evaporation, but it will potentially let that dam grass in which will hold the soil better in a big rain event.

I've been planting clover and small grains wherever I open up the canopy. It works, but weeds eventually take over.