Farm pond?

Michael R Braun

Michael R Braun

Well-known member
Ok guys

I have acsess to a farm pond that is about 50 to 60 yards wide. it always holds water witch makes me beleave it is fed from a small spring. I like to widen the pond out to make it more visual to the areas waterfowl. does anyone have any ecperionce with this. some does and donts?

any help would be great.

Also has anyone here flood a cornfield? how might I go about it?

Thanks Mike
 
By widen, do you mean to build up the dam (if one exists) or do you intend to lower the elevation of the land around it to flood more area?
Depending on the surrounding topography, it may be easier to do one or the other. What you may want to do is both, put in a dam or water control structure and lower the surrounding topography. That way you can lower the water level in spring and then flood the surround crop/wild weeds in the fall.
 
Mike,

First thing I would do is have the proper person from your local state agency come out and review your situation. I'm sure there will be state and/or county regulations that will govern just what you can and can't do. After you find out just what you are allowed to do, then you can consider your options on just how to accomplish those goals.
 
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You mean like this?

100_7592.jpg

100_7587.jpg

 
I started by making a few phone calls to the Army Corp. (The big levee you see in the back ground is the main Missouri River levee) Once the Corp and levee districts (I wouldn't have had to have their approval if I wasn't putting water against their levee) signed off I had a short levee built with a water control structure to hold the water when I want too. We then drilled a hole in the ground dropped a pump in it and turned on the pump. 45hrs later that is what I had. Here in Missouri there isn't any permit process or reason needed to flood a field or drill a well. Just do it. West of here well drilling and water rights are issues that will get you in BIG trouble.
 
Michael

Contact your county extension agent. My dad's agent hooked him up with a guy with grant money to create wildlife ponds free of charge on ag land. My dad was picturing digging out a corner of the field that had always been too wet to plant, this guy was more in line with creating a dike to block the entire field's drainage. My dad wasn't ready to loose half his productive acres at that time. (It's now all in CRP)

Chuck
 
Yeah Scott, I know but he asked the question how do you flood a corn field.... It's like someone asking what is the perfect duck load to shoot....

Mike,
When I contacted our conservation department they came out and did soil samples and we looked at many different options. I didn't want to lose the agriculture production so the best option was to foot the bill mainly out of pocket. Since I was going to flood it every fall the private land guys at the conservation department paid for half of just the dirt work. This ground is not in any program so there are no limitations on my use of it. If you go the route of CRP, CP-23, WRP, etc. be very aware of the limitaitions that joining any of the programs limit you too. If you want more specifics feel free to shoot me an email and I'll be happy to help with what I can.
 
First step is to contact the US Army Corps of Engineers. They will have jurisdiction over the "Waters of the U.S." and any associated riparian wetlands that are flooded as a result. You can hop onto their website and fill out an application for a 401/404 Permit and call for a "pre-application meeting" to get them out there within a couple of weeks. They will give you great advice on how/what to do.

Mike
 
Mike, hehehe too many Mikes. If this is ag ground with a crop history then the Corp wont have any jurisdiction and neither a 401 or 404 permit will be required.

"Section 404 of the Clean Water Act regulates the discharge of dredged or fill
material in all waters of the United States, including rivers, streams, lakes and
wetlands. This includes work such as site development fills, causeways or road fills,
dams and dikes, artificial islands, bank stabilization (riprap, seawalls and
breakwaters) levees, landfills, fish attractors, mechanized clearing of wetlands, and
certain types of excavation activities, etc."

Those permits are only needed to deposit soil in a "determined wetland or waterway they hold jurisdiction over" Your local NRCS office can do the wetland determination for you and since you're looking to restore a wetland they'll be happy to grant you the permits if it is determined you need to put dirt in a wetland.
 
I saw farm pond, but I did not assocaite it with Ag. land. Here in MD a farm pond is any small pond that is not a lake. hahaha. You have to spell everything out for us here in the mid-atlantic.

Your right, no permits from ACOE then.

Mike
 
I know I am new here but be careful if you lease this land if you own it do all the grant stuff you want,

Here in So Cal we had a duck club called the O&O it was by fare the best duck club in the valley.
they thought, way not bring in DU to help out with some of the habitat. DU went to the land owner and offer to take over their lease for a lot more money............being just avrige working stiffs they could not afford more money............ so they lost the best duck club in the valley
Michael

Contact your county extension agent. My dad's agent hooked him up with a guy with grant money to create wildlife ponds free of charge on ag land. My dad was picturing digging out a corner of the field that had always been too wet to plant, this guy was more in line with creating a dike to block the entire field's drainage. My dad wasn't ready to loose half his productive acres at that time. (It's now all in CRP)

Chuck
Click to expand...
 
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