Best way to capture seasonal creek water

Greetings,

7 Acre hobby farm here. I want to collect water, store it, and use a swale to plant perinneal plants and trees as well as soak water in the pasture. The creek here at the top of the picture comes in I think around 498 ft. ish. Slightly below my lowest point of 501. Does something like I have drawn, the white line, seem like a reasonable swale location? bring it in where it enters my property at the top right, circle it around the field and back to where it exits my property, top left? If I dig it to a depth of say 499 throught the property? Does this seem feasable and a good idea?

Also, all the area thats 501 there is seasonal wetland. The treed area just below the creek is seasonal wetland as well, although it might hold water all year

Thank you,

I think you could get more benefit by cuttong over right near the edge of the tree line. Starting higher on the property would give you the option to have multiple swales or even a pond.

You could dig the first trench deep and wide as needed to connect with the 501 on the other side. Then place the overflow such that it runs down a bit then into the second swale which is deeper on the left than the right so that the water moves back across your land tobthe right.

You can plant fruit / nut / cover on lower side of each swale and end up woth food forest or silvopasture setup.

J Davis wrote:I think you could get more benefit by cuttong over right near the edge of the tree line. Starting higher on the property would give you the option to have multiple swales or even a pond.

You could dig the first trench deep and wide as needed to connect with the 501 on the other side. Then place the overflow such that it runs down a bit then into the second swale which is deeper on the left than the right so that the water moves back across your land tobthe right.

You can plant fruit / nut / cover on lower side of each swale and end up woth food forest or silvopasture setup.

Did you mean like this? Make the swale shorter and closer to the stream then add swales off of that?

Pretty much.  A series of swales beneath that would maximize the amount of time each drop of water stayed on your land.

Do consider the 100 yr flood and make sure watwr has somewhere to overflow that wont give way or erode.

I think you need to chanGE YOUR PLANS.
Water is going to drift across the land to the top right hand corner of the photo. Generally.
A series of on contour swales across the middle section will capture and hold any water that lands  and that may be easier to achieve at the same time.
I dont think you will be able to capture any seasonal flow from that creek.