Fixing a broken pond on "fractured limestone"

Well, I just got off the phone with my representative at the county's soil and water conservation office. I had called to inquire about having them help fix my broken pond, which has been mostly fry for about 10 years. I know this from checking the history of images in Google Earth. Back in 2005 and before, the pond appeared to be quite healthy.

According to the water conservation guy, they can't help me with the pond because my land is on "fractured limestone" and since they want to make sure that tax dollars get the biggest bang for their buck, they won't invest in fixing a pond that they think will likely just leak and break again. I'm fine with that, I didn't go into this thinking the government would fix my pond, but it was worth at least asking. So... Now I have a dry pond that I still want to fix up.

I have a couple of pigs and an electric fence, so my inclination is to try to use the gleying technique. The pond sits below about 30 acres of watershed in an area that gets 45 inches of rain per year, in fact we get enough rain runoff that I've flooded and overflowed the pond 3 times in the past 4 months - although it's dried out within a week every time. I've attached a picture of what it looks like now, for reference (after 1/2" of rain last night). It's hard to tell from the picture, but when it's full it's about 1/3rd of an acre, and maybe 12 feet deep at the lowest point. The whole area is 100% covered in vegetation/weeds at this time and the soil is classified as "silt loam" according to the soil survey.

I have 2 pigs in another area that I could move over and fence off in the area. But before I do that, I wanted to see if anyone else had other ideas or advice with gleying or other techniques that I should do instead or in addition to. I probably will need more pigs to do this, but currently I just have the two little guys (probably 60-70 pounds each). Should I clear the vegetation, or just let the pigs do their work for now? Will this fracture limestone be a problem down the road, despite a good seal on top? I wouldn't think the issues in the bedrock matters unless the earth shifts, but maybe I'm missing something?

The soil is considered silt loam, which I would think has sufficient clay.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I should add... I'm also considering Geoff Lawton's use of Muscovy ducks to do the work. I've never had ducks and don't really know how well that will work or what it all entails. If anyone has had success with that, I'd love to hear about it.

I'm having great success using 3 pigs to seal a leaky pond. They never wallowed in the middle. They just work around the edges and pack it in and push rocks up out of it. Before when it leaked it was just a small pool of water that was very clear water. The pigs stir up so much silt the water is constantly cloudly now. I suspect the suspended silt particles settling out of the water work effectively to seal the pond. In the 2.5 months they have been in there the pond has never had so much water, its really getting big. Also the diversity of vegetation and animals has increased. Before all I had was cat tails. Now the entire surface is covered in duck weed and arrowhead is starting to germinate around the edges. These two plants were never there before. There are so many tadpoles, frogs and snails. Its amazing with just a little bit of work I actually did facilitate an event in nature that's working to repair it. I believe the duck weed floating on top is nature's way of telling me after the pigs get butchered, I need to move ducks in to forage on the duck weed and finish sealing the pond permanently. Here in Missouri we are sitting on a giant bed of limestone and the previous owner told me a pond would never seal on this property. I advise you to try it. You'll love the results. And there is no need to clear the vegatation, the pigs will do that for you. Cheers

Eric - how did you fence in your pigs? My problem is that if I fence in the pigs inside the pond, I would need a HUGE temporary fence to cover the entire pond and give them room to get uphill when the floods come in (probably a 600ft perimeter). I currently have them in a semi-permanent hi-tensile electric fence, and last time I moved them it was extremely time consuming. The hog netting would be nice and easy, but it's pretty expensive. This is the other reason I went with the ducks rather than the pigs.

Hi Dean, et al,

I have co-facilitate and also solo restored/built several ponds and wetlands areas over the decades...

Those on limestone geology can disappear literally overnight with just a small tectonic or other subterranean event...No surprise there that this one had such an event...

oil is classified as "silt loam" according to the soil survey...

When you get "silts" more than "sealing clays" is also an inhibiting factor for keeping and/or maintaining water impoundment over limestone. Clays...particularly bentonite clays are the very best.

I probably will need more pigs to do this, but currently I just have the two little guys (probably 60-70 pounds each).

More just gets the job done faster (if the soils support actual "gleying" modalities.

Should I clear the vegetation, or just let the pigs do their work for now?

The animals do the work...

Will this fracture limestone be a problem down the road, despite a good seal on top?

It could be if the soils do not contain enough localized natural clays. The animal effect is only so durable on its own. However, with there continued presence within this biome, it can be done again or create a good continue with in the aerobic stratum of the pond "muck" matrix to stay well sealed for a long time (or permanent) unless a large event goes off in the limestone. These can shift subterranean water courses, drain ponds and do all manner of thing..."below grade."

The soil is considered silt loam, which I would think has sufficient clay.

...use of Muscovy ducks to do the work. I've never had ducks and don't really know how well that will work or what it all entails.

Ahh...Yes..."Piggies or Muscovy?"

Let me first validate that I had...and love Swine! Brilliant animals and have so much to offer...Nevertheless this does take a cost. I am also an ecologist and do not care for the "heavy impact" they generally have on the land, and microbiomes that they so radically change and/or impact (some for the good...and not so much.)

My personal "rule of thumb" now for a "permaculture" (or related setup) is only to keep swine in very restricted areas with traditional wood/stone "sties" and if I have an excellent continuous source (from the community) of mixed healthy feed...If the space (because of the sensitizing of the surrounding biome) would restrict the "compound/or enclosure" to smaller than what we find in most better managed "zoological parks," today...I won't keep them...They need "toys" and "mental stimulus" to be "happy," (not to put too anthropomorphic twist on it.)

There is some success with training and interaction with "dog collars" and "proximity training" around the sty and compound area...Yet this seems to involve a great deal of "human interaction" and training as well as this only applies to "breeder stock."

Now to Muscovy...I simply love them...

Lighter on the land, great eating (better than pig in my subjective view and better for you), much better "feed to weight" ratio for free ranging, much simpler general husbandry all around. If I (subjective view again) was ever given the choice of which to give up...piggy would be gone out of my diet first...

Meat is more like a high end "Kobe beef (神戸ビーフ)" and can be prepared in many different ways...including wonderful (and healthy) "tartar" for the real "paleo diet" types...

They may not "gley" as fast (depends on quantity) but I like the environmental effect much better overall....

Last bit of advice from my "2¢" is rent a bulldozer, skim and regrade pond site toward current berm/dam impounding area, and get a few tri axle loads of "bentonite clay," from a local dealer...

Will cost a bit, but greatly speed up (or fix) the ponds leaks...better than "gleying alone."

Regards,

j

Dean Moriarty wrote:Eric - how did you fence in your pigs? My problem is that if I fence in the pigs inside the pond, I would need a HUGE temporary fence to cover the entire pond and give them room to get uphill when the floods come in (probably a 600ft perimeter). I currently have them in a semi-permanent hi-tensile electric fence, and last time I moved them it was extremely time consuming. The hog netting would be nice and easy, but it's pretty expensive. This is the other reason I went with the ducks rather than the pigs.

I used just two 100ft rolls of field fence and T posts and some hog panels that were already in place. I built a permanent fence, if in a few years if it gets overrun with blackberries etc, I can reintroduce goats/pigs/ducks etc and the fence is already established. The rolls of fence I got were free from the neighbor, so one roll had quite small holes and that was great, the other roll was much wider and the pigs were able to escape through the wires. Which was fine for awhile, during mulberry season they went around feasting like crazy, and they never seemed to run off(castrated boars, so i'm not worried about them too much) but last week they learned they could run through the chicken pens and find fresh eggs, mixed with the fact that I have a bulldozer coming out next weekend to build a building pad, 2 ponds and a swale, I didnt want them rooting around in my fresh earthworks destroying them, so I ran a string of electric fence along the inside of the field fence. This has kept them in successfully.

Before the electric fence



Original pond depth after it had dried out and first rain



After one month



A couple weeks ago



Lazy pigs