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"Backyard Ponds – The Ultimate Wildlife Magnet"
by John M. Regan

Fascinating Hobby - Crude Beginning

     Want a fascinating, affordable hobby that pulls wildlife into your life like an irresistible magnet?  Build a pond.  You’ll attract wild creatures like a hobo to a ham sandwich.

I’ve been involved with wildlife for many years.  I’ve always tried to maintain an animal friendly yard and my outdoor friends have reciprocated the kindness.  Give them the least bit of hospitality and they’ll gladly set up home.  But of all the things I’ve done my ponds have provided the greatest attraction for the natural world and the greatest pleasure for me.

            My first project, a little six foot diameter job built with an old swimming pool liner, I made while in the Army stationed at Fort Sill, OK.  I dug a hole, slapped in a cheap liner, and filled her up.  Next I threw in a pump, hooked up a garden hose, and ran it around the pond and over a big rock.  This gave me a small, but adequate waterfall.  Wasn’t much, but from then on I was hooked.  The pond became the focal point for my family as well as our wild neighbors.  As we added to it the little pond became an aquatic gem in that arid country.

The Northwest Experience

            We live in cooler climates these days along Puget Sound in Washington.  It’s ideal pond country and we began our aquatic vision almost as soon as we moved into our new home.  We now have a three foot deep koi pond with a much grander waterfall than my first effort.  At fourteen feet in diameter it is not large, but it’s a real beauty and provides tremendous pleasure.

            In this article I’m not going to explain the mechanics of pond building.  There are numerous sources that explain the step by step process better and I’ll provide them at the end of this article.  My job is to sell you on the idea of a pond to begin with and to have you look at in terms you may not have thought of previously.  It simply ain’t that hard people!  And the dividend beats the best stock pick on the market.

            Ponds can be any size, but I recommend building the biggest one possible.  In the first place, a large pond, like a large aquarium, is easier to maintain biologically and chemically.  And believe me – no matter how hard or expensive a pond is to install you’ll wish it was bigger almost immediately.

            So let’s say you’ve built your pond.  You just filled it with water and rolled up the garden hose.  You walk back to your creation and stare at the gleaming clear water.  It’s mesmerizing.  You’re filled with a rightful sense of pride and artistic satisfaction.  The only thing missing are the living creatures you’ve envisioned with every shovel full of dirt.  This, however, is not the time to throw in the koi and tadpoles.

Three Phases of a Pond's Life

You need to view the pond as the live, developing system it is; understand it in terms of beautiful transformations.  Don’t rush things.  You want your pond to grow like a child, blossoming into a healthy adulthood.  I like to think of the growth of a pond or aquatic garden in three basic phases.  I call them Childhood, Adolescence, Maturity. 

Childhood.  The minute you poured water into the liner you set loose a complex series of biochemical reactions.  Depending on the local water supply you may have dumped a great deal of chlorine or other anti-bacterial agents into the pond.  Well water can be loaded with minerals from iron to sulfur.  If the water is too extreme one way or the other you may have to treat it with additives.  Don’t worry.  There are many available products.  Either way, give the pond at least a week to settle down.  By this time excess chlorine dissipates and normal bacterial growth begins.

Now I assume you are reading this because you want a natural sort of pond filled with wild activity and not a pristine place to stare at your reflection (however beautiful that may be.)   That’s good, because what happens next will be less of a disappointment. 

During this Childhood phase of your pond’s development you may notice that your wonderfully clear water becomes inexplicably cloudy, sometimes to the point of opaque.  These are algal blooms.  Algal blooms are quite normal and will not harm your fish or other creatures, but the stuff looks awful.  There are two ways to handle this: the natural method or the Walmart throw in some algae killer procedure.  I suggest the natural method because it is permanent and has to eventually occur anyway.

You can’t stop algae.  Algal spores are everywhere.  Give them enough sunlight and oxygen and algae growth is startling.  Still water exasperates the problem.  Deprive algae of any of these factors and the growth is manageable, attractive, and a natural food source. 

·     Begin with pond location; it is the primary factor in algae control.  Direct sunlight all day is an algal explosion waiting to happen.  Try to place the pond where it receives shade for at least a quarter of the day.

·      If you don’t have enough shade trees don’t despair.  Plant water lilies.  These guys have nice broad leaves that spread quickly, providing shade and cover for your charges, and blocking sunlight from the offending algae.  Hyacinths and water cress are excellent, too.

·      Water movement goes a long way in preventing excess algae and is critical to the long term success of your pond.  A strong pump rated for the size of the pond will power a nice waterfall and provide the key to success. 

Adolescence.  Several weeks or so after your pond is in place the little ecosystem you created begins to achieve a semblance of balance.  It’s chemistry is stable and the algal blooms have primarily disappeared.  By now wildlife – both welcome and unwelcome – discover your handiwork.  Welcome visitors include snakes, frogs, small birds, dragonflies, bees, wasps, etc.  A few bucket of wild pond or lake water will establish “seed” populations of organisms and it won’t be long before you see populations of different types of insects and other invertebrates develop.  Apple snails and their kin are very common.  Diving beetles and dragonfly larvae start to show themselves. 

You don’t have to have koi.  Wild fish make excellent pond mates, have surprising color, are disease, and weather resistant.  But watch what you catch.  Small species like killifish, mosquitoes fish, and snail darters can be self sufficient even in a little pond.  Larger wild fish require more care and feeding and can wreak havoc with plants.  Crayfish are very intriguing.

The not so nice visitors are raccoons and herons.  These pesky critters can wipe out everything in one visit.  Raccoons attack at night; herons lead a dawn offense.  Either way you’ll likely sleep right through the assault so I recommend a water alarm.  This great little device has a battery operated infrared detector and attaches to your hose.  When a warm blooded intruder gets near the pond it lets loose a blast of water like a lawn sprinkler.  They are very effective.

Maturity.   This is the phase you’ve been waiting for – the child is grown up, self sufficient, and provides hours of genuine pleasure.  Actually, your pond never stops maturing.  It changes with the seasons and develops more and more as the years go by.  But a mature pond is a very self sufficient eco system.  It requires little maintenance on your part.  Algae growth is kept in check due to shade from the plants you have introduced; oxygen levels are reduced by the animals.  Invertebrate populations (especially mosquitoes) are regulated by fish, frogs, and dragonflies.  Ph levels and nitrogenous waste products are controlled thanks to the waterfall you built that runs over rocks and has produced billions of beneficial bacteria. 

Wasn’t that easy?  Although a lot of literature recommends a filter I have never used one.  With the proper mix of plants and animals my pond water is consistently clear.  My only problem is that our pond is a twenty four hour a day production plant that spews out baby koi by the hundreds.  I’ve had worse problems.

Sit Back and Enjoy

Ponds, like children, never cease to mature.  They simply do it at a more leisurely, refined pace as they take on a life of their own.  A multitude of natural denizens will continue to find this beautiful habitat you’ve created and call it their own.  We’ve had a terrific bullfrog in ours for the past three years and he serenades us at night in the summer.  Little green garter snakes seem to blossom as quickly as the koi every spring.  Every bird in the neighborhood knows where to get a drink.  Bees and wasps have moisture to air condition the hive.  All the little guys I’ve mentioned above make our pond a fascinating bundle of activity.  Water lilies and a host of aquatic plants bloom every year and provide more critter niches.

There’s true wonder in this beautiful bit of aquaculture.  Watching your creation grow and transform year after year, season after season is a pleasure not to be missed.  As you sit by your pond at the end of a long day, surrounded by the little beasties you’ve provided for and the bubble and gentle trickle of the waterfall blots out neighborhood sounds, (and raises your property value) you’ll know it was worth the effort. 

The fully mature pond - about four years old.

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