Turning A Hole Into A Habitat

[bosslady]

Hi everyone! I've been away for awhile dealing with life, retirement, shutting down and selling a business, consolidating two homes into one and throwing some office equipment into the mix. Two years later things have settled enough that I can turn my attention to restoring a hole that was once a cesspool into a habitat. I call the area our 'lagoon' as it is crater shaped and at it's deepest point about 4 foot deep. I do not know the exact history of the hole, but when we bought our farm 7 years ago, the Amish farmer was using it to water his stock. It held water well at that point but during a recent drought we discovered that the bottom was a mess, full of trash and discarded metal. My husband and I cleaned it out and removed about a foot of silt from the bottom. After that the problems started. The lagoon would no longer hold water.

The hole is approximately 30 foot across, and bowl shaped with a levy (that we discovered sometimes leaks). What we are planning to do is drop a liner into it to stop the water oozing that is going on and to hold at least 3 feet of water in the deepest part of the bowl. I plan on digging out a shelf around the circumference and lay sand at the shallowest part of the 'bowl' with the plan being to turn the area into a habitat for the countless frogs and turtles we have around our farm. This last summer we were encountering female Sliders and Snapping turtles digging nests in our yard to lay eggs. We are not planning at this point to run a filter, but may run a bubbler or small fountain head to oxygenate the water but our goal is to make it as natural, yet groomed as possible.

I'm no stranger to pond keeping. This will be my 4th project. We have two larger (man made) ponds on our property, (stocked with green sunfish and bass) that we are working to restore as habitat, plus the lagoon project. I'll try to get some pictures posted of the ponds soon but I am hoping to pick up some tips from everyone here along the journey. Right now what I need is SPRING!

I do have one question to start with. Our natural pond has 5 willow trees that have taken up residency around the edge and sometimes in the shallow water areas. We have cut them back but some of them are trying to re-sprout at the water's edge and even in the water.

How do we kill them once and for all without damaging the ecology?

This is a picture of the lagoon taken 2014 when we started doing our restoration plans. The red dots show the approximate size of it when filled. The picture looks a little distorted so it looks flatter than it really is.

 

[peter hillman]

Once had some of my neighbors poplar tree runners come up in the yard. Used a liquid Root Killer applied directly to the plant and was the end of it. Not sure of the exact product but I'm thinking Ortho. I also used the same for a stray Elm that was in a bad place, bye bye.

 

[bosslady]

The big picture is that these willows are growing in the shallow water 2-3 feet from the shoreline. Two years ago we suffered a catastrophic water loss on both of our ponds. We don't know what the odds are but both run off valves on both of the ponds went bad at the same time. We kept noticing the water level dropping and didn't think much of it as it was a hot dry summer. When the level dropped by 50% we started to worry and dig around until we found the valves. They had been attached without hose clamps and the freeze thaw cycle had caused the hoses to pop off the valves and the ponds were merrily emptying themselves. It took over a year for the biggest pond to recover. In the mean time, the winter of 13 happened and what water left in the big pond froze solid and when it thawed the raccoons were feasting on a lot of dead fish. I caught my first large mouth bass in two years this past summer so not all died off and we managed to transfer enough green sunfish from our smaller pond to restock the larger pond.

This past spring and summer we worked at clearing out the overgrowth of trees that were around the pond. We are about 50% done with that project but even with all that we have removed, there is even more waiting for us to drop. The trees go towards our heating for the next winter, but the willows have really become a problem. Using Ortho on them is out of the question due to the majority of them being on the waters edge. And now, willows that were on dry ground this time last year, are in water now. We cut them off when the water was low but they are re-sprouting now and loving the water. We use Tordon on Honey Locust trees that we are trying to clear out of our timber once we get them all cut down but that too is a no no around water.

We can cut down the willows again, but those roots are real survivors and will just regrow. I need to find habitat, wildlife safe way to make them go away for good.

 

[Becky]

Welcome back to the forum!

Given that the area has previously held water without a liner. my first thought would be - where is the water table. There have been a few reported incidences on the forum where heavy rain has raised the water table which has in turn lifted the pond liner and emptied the pond. Might be worth considering as it can be catastrophic for a pond!

 

[bosslady]

Thanks, Becky! I'm a Becky too . No the big ponds are both soil constructed. No liners.We are in North East Missouri which is known for it's thick grey clay soil. Just about every farm has a pond. There is a little oozing from both of the ponds at the bases of the levies but nothing that would cause it to drop thousands of gallons of water in less than two weeks.

We are planning to add rocks to the lagoon once we get it in place just to hopefully prevent something like that happening. The lagoon fills rapidly during heavy rains and overflows so some sort of run off drain will have to be taken into consideration to prevent overflow. As we are hoping to primarily offer habitat to frogs and turtles an overflow wouldn't cause much damage. But if I add some small fish to keep the mosquitos down, then an overflow or wash out would be a problem.