Hey McCoy.
I spent some time on a farm in Thailand where a farmer had an interesting system. He was repairing a damaged piece of forest land, and a once all-year stream was down to half a year.
He lacked the funds to bring in earth movers to create large dams, but created, which labor and rice bags, water slow-down effects at several dozen spots along the waterway.
Six of us created the one above in about 5-6 hours.
As you can see in this pic, the water has stopped flowing, but the small dams still held the water. He planted banana plants, water spinach, and other water-loving plants into these, and they thrived. Those banana plants just exploded with fruit.
We made it by digging into the bank on either side of the waterway, digging down a bit, and shoveling the soil into rice bags. We stacked the rice bags into a dam, and it held the water quite well. When the rains come, the water flows over the top. I wanted to build a spillway, but the farmer said one was not necessary. Some of his older ones were covered with soil and vegetation.
These were not wet all year long, but "slowed down," the water's voyage through the ecosystem, providing for a number of uses.
It was a great idea.
organick McCoy wrote:I don't know if anything like this is covered in GL's DVDs but I have a small year round spring fed creek that runs the length of my property and long term I would like to create a series of maybe 5 ponds/ dams along the creek. One big one at the top which would be a shaded pond for cold water fish/ mushroom/ ducks/ etc etc cultivation. Then possibly 3 warm water ponds which would receive full sun and be much smaller than the top pond. the bottom of the property before the water get culverted under the road and off my property is a pretty marshy area already..... I am looking for good info on design building of the ponds and dams. Including ideas for the diverting water during building times.....I assume top to bottom building is the best approach.....