Pond Cleanup

[Magicman]

As we all know, Stuff Happens, especially when other stuff gets in the way.  I made a bad mistake when I built the pond in 1995 by planting Bald Cypress trees.  Little did I know how readily they reproduce.     I had several years of neglect.


The seeds from the cones float and sprout whenever and wherever they touch soil.  Yes, I could spray with 2,4 D but I do not like spraying the water.

Anyway, Marty hauled one of his excavators over and put it to work.


Yup, pulling the trees up by the roots he did.


I say good job and good riddance.  The power line and trees in the background are sorta deceptive because they are actually about ~20 yards behind the bottom of the levee, so ~40 yards from the top of the levee.  He did the above yesterday and went back today to finish up.  I am anxious to see what he gets done today.  We will fall and poison the stumps on the two "mother" trees.  I wish that I could have been with him.

[Jeff]

They were starting to be a problem clear back the last time I was there as I remember.

[GRANITEstateMP]

That's a huge improvement!

[SwampDonkey]

Great job done or in progress. Nice to have access to big equipment.    Didn't know cypress was a problem. Was they growing out into the pond? They ain't now. 

The 'like' button didn't stop me from seeing and posting. 

[Resonator]

Marty did a fine job, that pond looks better for shore!

[Magicman]

He has been back all day today and he finished cleaning the pond bank the rest of the way.

 
Our next order of business will be to fall those two mother trees on the left and that sprout beside the pier.  This is exciting to restore the pond back to where it was and should be.

You can see the levee in the background.

[Magicman]

I just talked with Marty after he got home.  He did much more than the pond levee such as removing tree limbs from our main road and back filling some washouts.  

Our next big project will be to locate a suitable relocation spot for our washed out bridge.


It doesn't matter how nice we had it nor how proud we were....


Yup, washed out again.  We are salvaging the poles for the rebuild in a different location.  I think/hope that I have enough White & Post Oak for all new decking.

We try to always have two bridges but as you can see, we are back down to one.  

  

[thecfarm]

Much better!!!!

[SwampDonkey]

Will certainly keep a fella busy enough replacing bridges or decks of bridges. You get a lot of water and fast at times on flat terrain. I'm amazed in some rains we get here, the hillside on open fields is one big wide shallow brook.  Most sloping fields here are terraced these days.

[ron barnes]

Very nice work.  Looks great.

[caveman]

It looks good, MM.

Your pond site must be much better suited for bald cypress than mine.  I planted two of them when I was around 10 years old.  One is probably 5" dbh and the other is only 2-3".  My pond occasionally gets covered in weeds.  Last time I was able to use the telehandler's forks to remove most of them.  After cleaning it once from a canoe using a potato rake, I made an attachment for the front of my tractor.

[aigheadish]

MM that looks great! And yeah, you do seem to have your bridge building hands full.

Kyle, did you post your tractor attachment elsewhere? I'd be interested to see it.

My pond is only about 30 or so feet wide, and I can only get access to it, low, from one side, unless I use the backhoe, but then my attachment would have to be way longer. I bought a water weed rake razor but it tends to get hung up a lot. I'm in a dumb spot where my pond leaks so I don't spend a bunch of energy on it but it looks so nice when it's not overgrown. One day we'll spend the time/money/energy to line it and make it nice. I've got a neighbor around the corner who put a pond in. I've never talked to them (they are really about a mile down the way) but I may have to find out who did his work, because it looks great.

[caveman]

I looked through a lot of photos to find these two.  It is basically a 21' piece of 2" pipe with a little homemade bar truss added to the top. The rake pins onto the pipe. It slips on the homemade fork rack on the front of the tractor.  I ran two ratchet straps up to the top of the fork rack to help stabilize it.  It is not robust enough to lift weeds, but it will rake/drag them up onto the bank.  The weeds I get float and tend to cling together, so I can pull weeds from much further away than the rake will reach.  

This time, I made a grapple out of rebar, similar to the rock anchors used in a lot of Latin American countries-minus the rock.  I used it to pull the weeds close enough to get them with the telehandler forks. 

[Nebraska]

Will you bundle up the pulled trees and sink them in the pond for fish cover? I've got a few storm damaged Red Cedars I'd like to sink in my pond for a little more cover. 

[caveman]

In my pond, the logs are put in to keep the bugs from eating them.

Brush piles in pits, ponds and lakes will definitely hold fish.  We generally find them very effective in 8'-15' of water or even a little deeper.  During the summer months, when the water temperature here can get into the 90's, the deeper structure is a good place to catch bass.  

It is illegal to put out brush piles in public lakes here, but it is a good practice to create fish habitat.  A lot of folks use Christmas trees, bound together and sunk.  We used to put them out tied to blocks.  Also, large bushes like wax myrtles or Brazilian peppers anchored to the bottom hold quite a few fish.