Creating a Lake

[Birdhunter1]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I had the NRCS come out to my place just a few weeks ago. They said I could build a dam/lake anywhere I wanted, no permits needed. )</font>

Just my .02 cents but tell the NRCS to get lost and go pee up a rope!
We deal with them regularly at our hunting club and I see them as an agency to appropriate a budget to and spend money!

 

[RobA]

Eddie,
Have you checked out Pond Boss yet? Great resource. Magazine, books and best of all a message board .

A lot of people on that site are from your area.

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

Yes, I've been reading all the posts over there and started a few topics of my own asking some questions. I've even managed to make an enemy on a post about the value a pond adds to the land and my experiences with apraisals. Seems one guy thinks I'm a crook and deal with crooks since appraisers are not influenced by their clients when putting a value on a piece of property. They are above that. hahaha

It's pretty funny, but otherwise, it's a fantastic site with some exptremely knowledgable people there with some very useful advice and ideas.

The links to some of the different state agencies has also be very useful.

I've got a good idea of how I want to create the bottom contours of my lake now. Adding structure and spawning beds are my next concern, but not a priority. Same with the Ram Pump I'm going to build to get water from the creek to the lake.

Eddie

 

[RobA]

After I posted that suggestion I happened to go to the Pond Boss site and noticed your recent post. There is a lot of info there but they do get rough sometimes. I think the people on TBN are much less likely to attack a poster.

I have a 2 acre pond that needs a LOT of work. I'm trying to get things organized now. I am amazed when I read how easy the people in Texas have it with regards to regulations and the number of excavators that do pond work down there. Things are nowhere near that easy up here in the Northeast!

I like the updates you are giving on the pond and your other projects. Keep them coming.

 

[EddieWalker]

Steph works all week and with the days being so short, she only gets to see the progress on the weekends. We're also being over run with wild hogs. Every morning there's several different areas newly rutted up. By the tracks, there's three seperate groups, plus a few singles.

Here she is with my rifle looking over the lake site.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's the lake site all cleared and ready for dirt work. The burn pile is getting smaller, but it's happening very slowly.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

One of my concerns is what to do with rain water. The creek is right before the brush line.

My plan is to dig out the lowest part of the lake at the lowest part of my land into a giant bowl. This will be where rain water collects while I'm working on digging out the rest of the area.

This trench is to drain the collection bowl.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Now that I have a way to drain the rain water, I scraped the top soil away. Not that I dont want any topsoil, but it's the little twigs that are all over the place that I don't want.

Then I started digging the keyway for the dam.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

This part of the dam will be the tallest point. I expect it to be six feet tall to hold back the water and another 2 feet of freeboard for a total of 8 feet of height.

There is a formula for how big the keyway needs to be based on the height of the dam, but I'm just winging it. I know that 4 feet wide and six feet deep will be way more than required, so that's what I've dug.

Eddie

 

[MMM]

On my pond the core trench was as wide as dozer and roller so clay could be compacted. Depth was whatever it took to cut a couple feet below clay layer. The clay wasn't flat layer, but ran from 2' deep on hillside to 6' deep under watersand in bottom. Contractor said if you don't "walk" it in and compact, it will seep, and that a general rule is a minimum foot width for a foot water depth because of hydraulic pressure exerted .