“If your pond has a firm bottom of sand, gravel, clay or bedrock, dredging the soft muck on top may provide you with greater depth, reduced nutrients for algae, and more oxygen,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The possibility of recreational use, such as swimming or boating, is restored by dredging, as well, though it has to be done in a particular way to help an algae problem. If you’re wanting to stock a pond with fish, Michigan State Extension Service recommends dredging it to 15 feet or more to improve fish habitat. If this describes your pond like it did ours, it may be time to dredge.ĭredging generally removes 2 to 5 feet of muck, reducing the nutrient base for excess vegetation and creating deeper water where sunlight cannot penetrate. Excessive muck on the bottom, caused by nutrients from runoff and decaying plants, can really only be dealt with through removal. But as a pond undergoes succession, it becomes shallower, allowing all manner of vegetation to flourish and further contributing to silting and shallowness. Eventually, the pond will dry up, and you’ll be left with a cattail-filled swamp.ĭepending on water clarity, sunlight does not typically penetrate beyond 3 to 4 feet of water depth, which helps keep plant growth at bay. The pond will become bog-like near the shore, as willows and other trees begin to line banks, their young seedlings and shoots advancing.
Langston states that without human intervention, your pond will begin to shrink as years pass. Created pre-1980, 20-plus years of silt build-up, burgeoning vegetation, and cattle wading into it to cool their hooves had rendered it little more than a shallow swamp that visiting ducks could scarcely navigate without tangling a foot in the weeds: a classic case of what Langston University Research and Extension in Oklahoma, calls “successional changes.” We were thrilled with the purchase, but when it came to the pond, the only things it was stocked with were cattails and bullfrogs. We found our 22-acre farm in Missouri through an auction notice-1883 Victorian farmhouse, barn, stocked pond and all.
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