Biulding a Small Dam - flooded timber?

[walt4dun]

Playing with the idea, just a 'what if' here, but I would like to construct a small dam to stop water from flowing out of a small swamp bottom to make some flooded timber?

The bottom is around 3-4 acres, if we get some good rain for a week or two it will fill up to about a foot or so deep but slowly drain out over the course of the week after. The water runs out at a very slow trickle across the road in one low spot forming a little stream, 2' across maybe. The rest of the perimeter of the "pond" is surrounded by higher ground so I'm thinking this may be possible???

The dam wouldn't have to be very big, maybe 5' across? 1-2' tall? Just want to hold a little water.

As far as construction, I don't want to use concrete or anything like that, I want to do this as 'natural' as possible i.e. wood or crossties stacked and sealed together??? open to suggestions???

I have a tractor with a front end loader so I'm thinking I could re-enforce the structure with ton or two of dirt/clay?

Point me in the right direction here fellas...

[Turd Ferguson]

will you need to drain it at any point in the future without tearing out the dam? Is the road that it crosses "your road" will the water you back up touch anyone elses property line? What about future erosion will it flood someone downstream?

[2thDoc]

you just need to incorporate a pipe in an earthen dam. need a track hoe.

and a pipe.

[RWW]

something like a bobcat x331 baby trackhoe. pack it good with the machine

[Palmetto Bug]

Won't you need a permit for that? I think that damned up ponds are treated differently than water table ponds since there may be some risk of a damn blowout that could cause problems for downsteam neighbors. You might want to anonymously ask a few questions of your local DHEC office.

[FreeLiner]

You could open yourself up for litigation if the area could be considered a wetland or Waters of the U.S. If you damage the wetlands you could face a fine just like a developer that destroys or harms any wetlands.

[walt4dun]

I am thinking it is not illegal b/c I am not stopping up a flowing creek. I would classify it as a "drainage" opposed to a "branch" of a creek - does that make sense? I will def check into the laws before hand regardless...

The road that it crosses is mine, we got the propery on both sides of the road. When I say road, I am talking an unimproved cut-through road that runs across the swamp connecting both sides of the property.

There will be no need to ever drain it that I can see - I'm sure it will dry up eventually. I just want this bottom to hold water as long as possible and not drain out so fast.

No chance of a damaging flood if the dam blows out - no neighbors downstream and I'm thinking there is not really going to be that much water anyway - the water runs down a drainage through a thick cutover between the two "hills" before it hits a main branch of a fairly deep creek about a 1/4 mile away. The grade is not severe so the water wouldn't be moving fast at all - like I said earlier, "slow trickle."

Having this flooded area would be great for the wildlife and really give them a good primary water source. When the bottom dries up, there is no other water around for them on our property.

[Mergie Master]

Nothing to it.

You'll want to start with this:



Next step this:



Then:



Hire some illegals:



And you got this, a perfect dam:



Simple as A-B-C!!! [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[walt4dun]

A visual aid may clear up some confusion.

[DRDUCK]

Get ya some beavers.

[JABIII]

"The dam wouldn't have to be very big, maybe 5' across? 1-2' tall? Just want to hold a little water."

Walt, if that is all you are needing you can probably build your dam with nothing more than an angled scrape blade on your tractor. I have a couple of 3 and 5 acre timber heads that I flood for ducks in this manner. PM me your number and I will be glad to give you some ideas on how to work it before you go throwing away money on hoes and dozers...



Here is one area. The engineer quality drawings show the way the water used to run out of the draw in blue. I simply ran a short levy around that area with the scrape blade until I had it about 2 feet tall at it's highest points. Haven't needed to worry about draining it as it is bone dry in the summer anyway. If I did, for any reason, cutting it with the same scrape would be easy enough and repair would take under 20 minutes. Good luck with it.

[CAMO SNOB]

Tell you what do, throw you a couple sacks of quick create in the drain pipe that runs under that dirt road. try this year before you go spend'n money fucking up your trees and shit. Don't be a dumbass and clog the pipe all the way [img]graemlins/coolio.gif[/img]

[Island Hunter]

We have a bottom we flood every year. We began by dropping sandbags in the ditch to block the ditch up and cutting trees to give an initial dam and see how it went. Two years ago after having some good hunts in there we got a ditch gate from WP Law and twenty foot of 18 inch pipe and built a permanent dam using dirt from our pond. Works out great and gives us another 4-6 acres of flooded acorns to hunt. Hope this helps.