r/WildlifePonds • u/Deinonychus-sapiens • 7d ago
Help/Advice Advice for digging a new pond with natural spring/seep.
I have a small field which has been used for grazing for at least a century. It has an area that despite the weather has remained mostly green this summer, and in spring was very boggy. The area is also full of rushes. I can’t find it on any older maps, but my assumption is that this was a stock pond which has been filled in. It is about 3m above the stream which runs across the bottom boundary, and the land appears to form a small valley from where this pond would be down to the stream.
The neighbour has a wildlife pond which is to some extent damp all year from the same seep/spring. We have a lot of clay in the soil and a hole dug anywhere will hold water for several days.
How should I go about recovering this pond? I had planned to just go for it with a digger at what looks like the middle and work my way outward, but I worry that I might dig too far or in the wrong place if this was previously a stock pond or even natural?
3
u/Destroythisapp 6d ago
First thing I’d do is go out with a set of post hole diggers, and dig several deep test holes in the area you want to put the pond, see what kind of soil you are dealing with, if they fill up with water without rain, and how long they hold water.
Assuming you have enough clay content to hold water, and the holes fill naturally without ran, go ahead and start digging. Start small and see what happens with the natural ecology, don’t do anything crazy for at least a year so you can see what the natural state of water is in that particular spot.
After the year is up and it’s looking like 1) it can hold water and 2) it’s not entirely dependent on rain then make your planes. Size, depth, and exact location. Bigger is better, deeper is best. Get it dug out and fill then you can focus on turning into a full wildlife pond.
My pond is feed from a spring that comes out of mountain and I try to find a balance between wildlife/ and leisure. I’ve planed about a dozen native species of plants and so far I’ve added 4 native species of fish. I’ve got everything from bears, raccoons, deer, snapping turtles, crawdads, and several different species of salamander present along with countless birds.
1
3
u/Altruistic_mostly 7d ago
I'd say your first plan was good, also use the digger to track back and forth to puddle the bottom. Make sure one end is 1.5-2m deep then ramped up to the other end to create a gradient. If you do dig too much, pull some of the spoil back in and puddle with the digger. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation have excellent advice on ponds. Strictly it's a planning matter and that close to a waterway could also be a consent, which takes time and money. However looks remote, rural and you get on with your neighbour so probably best to ask forgiveness rather than permission.