Need ideas, redoing pond lining, need animals to be able to climb out

[puddleplasher]

I've got a pond in my yard that was built over thirty years ago. There's conventional pond lining in the bottom of it, and around the edges it looks like they did a hand-laid rough concrete layer over the lining to form a pond edge. The concrete extends down into the pond a foot or two, and in addition to edging it has also given various animals that get into the pond a traction surface to help them climb out -- dogs, otters, deer, me on occasion. Now I think the base lining might be developing a small leak and eventually the pond will need to be re-lined, so I'm looking at design ideas that will still give animals (and me) a way to climb out of it, but also not encouraging them get into it more in the first place. Do I just redo something like the rough concrete over the edge again? A sloped shallow section to the edge might also work, but I don't trust some of these animals to be smart enough to find that without trashing the rest of the pond first. Any creative ideas out there?

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Thank you for thinking about the critters!

What kind of animals are you talking about: frogs, turtles, vs dear, raccoons?

 

[puddleplasher]

As I said, dogs, deer, and me, mostly.

 

[SarahT]

How deep and big is the pond? and the dog? I've seen some creative use of artificial turf on a sloped pond edge to help the pond owner's Chesapeake Bay retriever dogs come in/out of the pond without shredding the liner. But the slope and turf made it a two-way highway (his comment, "try keeping a retriever out of water"). I'd think otters will get in and out regardless of what you do. Deer? I'd think they'd be more waders than swimmers?

(Having been in my small pond this morning to do a little bit of maintenance, I found myself wondering if there was a way to install an ADA grab bar. Just one of those days when my injured foot and I should have stayed landside.)

 

[puddleplasher]

The pond is pretty big, maybe thirty-forty feet long by 10-12 wide, and the deepest part is probably 3.5 feet. It's got waterlilies and other plants throughout. The dog in question is a lab-greyhound cross, so yeah, think of a retriever with unlimited energy, who gets overheated easily and thinks a swim is a great way to cool off. The deer are mostly waders, but the pond sides slope and deer are just dumb enough that they might wade in after a tasty-looking lilypad and either misjudge or just plain slip and they'd end up flailing as they tried to get back on their feet. Those pointy hoofs could do some damage to a liner, I'm thinking. The otters I'm not too worried about, they're athletic.
Right now, the deer just wade in on the pad of muck and lily roots that have built up over the years and apparently wade back out again, using the concrete to help with traction at the edge. The dog gets to the concrete edging and digs his claws into that to lever himself out. If it was just rubber lining there, I imagine both of them would do some expensive damage. But if I need to fix this suspected leak, I'll need to remove both plants and concrete edge.

 

[SarahT]

The pond is pretty big, maybe thirty-forty feet long by 10-12 wide, and the deepest part is probably 3.5 feet. It's got waterlilies and other plants throughout. The dog in question is a lab-greyhound cross, so yeah, think of a retriever with unlimited energy, who gets overheated easily and thinks a swim is a great way to cool off. The deer are mostly waders, but the pond sides slope and deer are just dumb enough that they might wade in after a tasty-looking lilypad and either misjudge or just plain slip and they'd end up flailing as they tried to get back on their feet. Those pointy hoofs could do some damage to a liner, I'm thinking. The otters I'm not too worried about, they're athletic.
Right now, the deer just wade in on the pad of muck and lily roots that have built up over the years and apparently wade back out again, using the concrete to help with traction at the edge. The dog gets to the concrete edging and digs his claws into that to lever himself out. If it was just rubber lining there, I imagine both of them would do some expensive damage. But if I need to fix this suspected leak, I'll need to remove both plants and concrete edge.

Nice, big pond and definitely a dogNdeer attractor. Let's see who has solved the wildlife problem.

 

[GBBUDD]

A shelf at a foot below the water level is all you need for those three creatures to be able to get out.