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Everyone has an expertise, and that is the basis behind Instructables, The World's Largest Show and Tell.

This Instructable, from Progressive Farmer explains how to manage your farm and fish pond. It covers the basics, and gives you a good idea of a few things involved when considering a pond for your recreational property.

Here is the video-- with an outline and prompts at the bottom:




Introductions:

Dan Miller, Senior Editor of The Progressive Farmer Magazine
Terry Goldsby, from Aqua Services, Inc.

Building the Fish Pond-- :55

There is no recommended set size for any pond, but for bass under an acre is difficult to manage, but 2-3 acres is a good size.

Goldsby recommends not having cattails around the pond. They are weedy, and should be avoided.

Levee by the Pond-- 1:10

Here they are using compactable dirt to raise the water level, and for aesthetic reasons they are covering the aeration pipes.

Pond Slope-- 1:30

It is important for your slope to be steep. When the slope causes the pond to get deep quickly it prevents weed growth.

The Pond's Natural Water Source-- 1:51

It is important to be able to control your water source. In this case they have built a dam on an existing drainage ditch.

When you are able to control your water source you are able to control:

• weeds
• algae
  
• wild fish
• nutrients

You should also use a rain gauge in order to know how much the rain affects your water level.

Evaporation should also be a concern. You can lose 12 gallons/minute/acre, and that is up to 15,000 gallons of evaporation from every acre of pond a day.

The solution is to have an alternative water source like a well.

Fish Habitat-- 2:53

You can create spawning beds with pea gravel in a 10x10 square.

3:17-- Aeration systems are important to have in place in order to provide adequate oxygen for the fish.

3:34-- Fish Attractors

You can buy a fish attractor that acts as a fish's habitat or you can create them with trees and rocks.

3:52-- Natural fish attractors can also by cypress trees. They will grow in the water acting as a fish's natural habitat.

Stocking Fish-- 4:27

When stocking fish you need to form the basis of the food chain. In this case they stocked the pond with small blue gills and small shellcrackers six months before they put in the large mouth bass.

Feeding Fish-- 5:10

Getting an automatic fish feeder is a good idea. It is programmable and throws different quantities of food in at different times.

Labels: farm ponds, fish pond, Fish Ponds, fishing ponds, Land Management, pond, Pond Management, Ponds, recreational property, rual pond, rural property

By: Dr. Neil A. Waer


A very important but often overlooked land management practice is to post your property. Trespassing and the related poaching that often accompany it sometimes can negate successful outcomes from other management efforts. We all know how expensive it can be to mange for wildlife. Not only can one spend many dollars for each deer, turkey, or quail produced, but time (often years) is invested for each individual animal also. Just think of the heartache associated with feeding and saving your best bucks each year just to have trespassers poach them from you because you spent no, or marginal, effort to prevent it.

In some states the actual placement of signs along the borders of your property is not necessary to legally protect against trespassing. However, I believe securing your boundaries is critical. You see, one of the most important things to managing wildlife has nothing to do with wildlife at all. It’s managing people! And in this case, it’s doing your best to keep unintentional and often even deliberate trespassers off of your land. The purpose of this article is to encourage all of us who have put this chore off for too long to get out there and do it!

So what can be done to help reduce or minimize potential trespass problems? The answer is to make a very clear and visible proclamation that you are serious about unlawful trespass. Over the years I have had numerous “run-ins” with trespassers/poachers who almost always have the same response. They usually say “I thought it was ok to hunt/fish here ‘cause I didn’t see any signs” or “I didn’t know it wasn’t ok to hunt/fish here.” Well, I think we should all make a strong effort to that say it isn’t ok to hunt/fish on our land without permission by doing a thorough and professional job of posting our boundaries.

There are three things one needs to know to do a good job of posting your boundaries:

1. What to use
2. How to hang it
3. How far apart to hang it

1. So what type of sign should you use?
Probably the most common sign seen hanging is a thin, inexpensive paper-type sign available at most hardware stores, home centers, and farmer’s Co-ops. These signs sell for about $0.50 to $1.00 and usually are seen wrapped around and nailed to trees and fence posts or placed on wooden backer boards. Most look weathered and paled by the end of the first hunting season. These types of signs tear and fall off easily.

The second most common choice, and a better one, seems to be a rigid plastic or corrugated plastic sign available at the same types of stores that usually sells for about $1 to $2. While these types of signs do last longer, my experience has been that they eventually fade or crack with increasing sun exposure.

The best and most professional-looking sign I have found is a heavy gauge aluminum sign. These high quality signs can be purchased from your local sign company, over the Internet, or by mail order. I have had a very satisfactory experience mail ordering from Voss Signs, LLC (800- 473-0698). I have purchased 0.032-gauge aluminum signs for under $4, delivered. Bulk orders from most companies receive a discount. This is a very thick and rigid sign that will not bend in the wind and does not need a backer board. While signs can be ordered in several colors, my preference is an orange sign with the message seen in the first photo above. I believe orange is more visible in the woods than yellow or another color. Additionally, I believe the message on the sign pictured in the first photo is more inclusive and specific than just the words “No Hunting” or “ No Trespassing.” I don’t want to accidentally give trespassers a loophole. Most sign companies also will allow customized messages.

2. So how should you hang your signs?
Because I want to be as professional as possible to communicate a clear and serious message, I try to neatly hang all of my signs at about the same height (4 feet above the ground) in one of three ways. If fences are already present along the property boundary, I screw signs directly to the fence posts using stainless steel screws.

If no posts are available and I need a very professional look in highly visible or vulnerable areas (such as along road frontages), I bolt them to 1 5/8” x 5’, 18-gauge galvanized pipes used for chain link fence posts. These pieces of pipe are readily available at home centers for about $4 apiece. I drill all the way though the pipe starting about 2 inches down from the top and use small stainless steel bolts with washers to attach the sign at the top and bottom of the sign (most aluminum signs come pre-drilled). Before you attach the sign, a fence-post driver can be used to drive the post in the ground. To finish it off, a post cap (about $0.50) can be added to keep rainwater from collecting in the pipe and rusting it prematurely. While it may seem like overkill, the result is a very professional-looking job that communicates the right message.

The other and most common way to mount signs along extensive boundaries with no fence posts already available is to attach them to boundary trees. I don’t like to use nails because nails have a tendency to work out over time. Instead, I prefer to use stainless steel screws to attach signs to trees because screws can be adjusted and backed-out as the tree grows. A drawback to attaching signs to trees, however, is that it can be somewhat inconsistent and “messy” due to differences in tree diameters and tree growth angles.

3. The final decision is how often to hang a sign.
While this will depend upon your budget and if you have 10 acres or 10,000 acres, I think about every 100 yards is good. In highly vulnerable areas or thickly vegetated areas, closer spacing might be needed. While posting your property will not automatically keep every trespasser off (I once caught a poacher hunting on one of my greenfields just 100 feet over a boundary even though 2 signs were visible; he claimed that he hadn’t seen either of them), it probably will keep most unintentional and even intentional trespassers off if done in a way that communicates how serious you are. In addition, it will give you peace of mind, not to mention a rock solid case in a court of law.

This article was originally published in Wildlife Trends in June 2003, Volume 3, Issue 6. The images are also from the magazine.

It has been slightly edited to reduce the length.

Dr. Neil A. Waer is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and professional wildlife management consultant specializing in wetlands mitigation and the development of private properties for wildlife, recreation, and timber. In addition, he has served on the faculty of Auburn University as an instructor in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.

Labels: Land Management, Managing Wildlife, Posting Your Property, Preventing Tresassers