It's taken me a number of years to realize that ponds don't take care of themselves. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

The first few years after my parents bought the property, we actually used to swim in the pond. Now, a couple of decades later, the algae bloom as well as the number of water fowls fouling the water has deterred us from even sticking our hands in there if we can help it. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Also, the trout/bass/catfish population has deteriorated to just bass and maybe a few catfish.

Pop never talked to me about what all he did to keep things perky, and now that he is gone and the pond is in my hands, I need to do some real learnin' on the subject.

Over on that tractor forum (which shall remain anonymous [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ), I heard various suggestions for controlling plant growth. The one that appealed to me the most was the use of grass carp, although I'm not sure they're legal in this state (California).

Some years the water level drops down to almost nil during the hot months (see attached picture), and I've heard that one thing you can do is to go in with a bulldozer and just scrape off a layer of soil to give things a fresh start.

I recently heard that it might be better to just scatter chicken poop all over the pond bottom when it's pretty dried out. Not sure how that helps, but I'm not much of a poop expert. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

Just wondering how other folks keep their ponds fresh and clean.