Filling in Pond...

[MicroPilot]

Don't know about KY but here in Michigan I would be very carefull about filling anything that could be considered wetlands. I would make sure about permits and all of the needed hoops before I moved any dirt. I'm a big fan of "better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" on many matters, but not this one.

The pond is back my private drive and is not visible from any public road. I don't believe there are any regulations that would prevent me from filling in this pond, but I'm also not going to stir things up by asking.

Any reason you don't drive piles?

That's an option I hadn't thought of.

The problem as I see it is just how deep would you might need to go to hit solid ground?

That I don't know. The pond isn't very big. Kind of oblong maybe 25' across and 50' long. 2 years ago I was messing around trying to dredge out the cattails when the water was low and sunk my tractor in the mud up to the frame. It took 2 bigger AG Utility tractors to pull me out. This created ruts 2 or 3 feet deep. It looked like I could have gon deeper and this was at the edge!

What about filling it with stone?

I've considered this. I have plenty of field stone available. I would think you would still need to remove the silt though. With out doing this the rock would just settle into the mud.

 

[Highbeam]

cattails, oh yeah, it's a wetland. The gov't uses aerial photos these days to look for changes in the vegetation and ground. Not visible from the street is no longer an issue. In fact, the software can now recognize when vegetation is removed from an area and flags the site for automatic prosecution. Irritates the heck out of me.

 

[MicroPilot]

5 years ago when I moved onto this property there weren't any cattails. Now that I don't let the animals have access to the pond they have taken over.

As for automatic prosecution, thats sounds far fetched. What would happen if I decided to get some cows and let them use the pond as a watering hole? They would eat or trample all the cattails and the vegetation removel would be a "natural" occurance.

I'm also a believer in "if you own the land you can do any damned thing you want with it", not that this would matter to the government.

 

[goaliedad]

for what it's worth- we used to own alot on an inland lake in northern Michigan. Due to lack of use, the beach had growen up with cattails and other aquatic weeds. We were told that we could remove them manually but could not use any pwer equipment with out permits. I would assume that if you ran some cattle and they took care of the cattails, all is well- the water is still there. Big difference than filling in a weed choked pond.

As for automatic legal action- no idea. As for the possiblity of legal action- not sure, but I would think you would be very open to legal recourse.

While I would like to think that since I own a piece of property I can do what I want- but unfortunately I think this is one time when that is not the case.

 

[EddieWalker]

As for automatic prosecution, thats sounds far fetched. What would happen if I decided to get some cows and let them use the pond as a watering hole? They would eat or trample all the cattails and the vegetation removel would be a "natural" occurance.

In California, the environmentalist are getting cattle removed from land if they have acces to a stream, creak, or the runnoff from the pasture leads to a stream or creak that might has salmon in it.

There's no proof that there is salmon in those creeks, and the one I know about personally has never had salmon in it. But the landowners had to put up fences to keep their cattle a certain distance from that creek.

What's even funnier is there is a road between those cows and the creek.

To make if even more rediculous, horses are ok. Just cows have to be kept away.

Somebody decided that cow turds are bad, but horse turds are ok in streams that may or may not have salmon in them.

Of course, very few states are as wacky as California, but never underestimate just what they might try. And if they do try something, you automatically lose. Even if you win the case in court, you lose time, money and probaby years off your life in stress.

Good luck,
Eddie