My family has farm land near Richland Chambers lake. It has an area with a small draw/weather creek running through it. The land around it is all in production(cotton/milo/corn) Does anyone have experience with converting a small portion to use for duck hunting? It's not far from the Richland chambers wma, so I know there are lots of duck in the area. Is this something DU might be able to help with?

No idea on the answers to your questions, but if the pond will be catching ag runoff from production fields, get ready to deal with a lot of algal blooms from the excess nitrogen and other nutrients in the runoff. Submerged vegetation is your friend in uptaking alot of those nutrients, but it may take a bit to get it established. If the hope is to also stock it with fish, the fish will just exacerbate the nutrient problems and anybody wanting to fish is going to wish it didn't have the submerged vegetation. Start with a plan for what function is most important for the pond, then have a plan for the algae and excess nutrients that is compatible with that plan.

txags92 said:

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No idea on the answers to your questions, but if the pond will be catching ag runoff from production fields, get ready to deal with a lot of algal blooms from the excess nitrogen and other nutrients in the runoff. Submerged vegetation is your friend in uptaking alot of those nutrients, but it may take a bit to get it established. If the hope is to also stock it with fish, the fish will just exacerbate the nutrient problems and anybody wanting to fish is going to wish it didn't have the submerged vegetation. Start with a plan for what function is most important for the pond, then have a plan for the algae and excess nutrients that is compatible with that plan.

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Thanks, I was thinking more of a ricefield setup. Shallow with no fish

Ive done a few wetlands with success. There's lots of variables and a lot of it cant be addressed without looking at the actual property.

It sounds like you have a pretty good source of water which is 2/3rds of the battle. Will you be able to back up enough land to attract birds without pushing water onto your neighbors.

What is the grade of the land? Ideally, you want it to be flat enough to hold water between 4"-12" deep.

If you're serious, the first thing I do is go out with a rotary laser level and flag off your pond. Figure out how much levee it's going to take to flood how much property you want wet.

Bigger isn't always better. If there's already birds in your area, I wouldn't get crazy with size. A 1 acre hole with 50 birds is often much more productive than 20 acres with 200 birds.

Can you dedicate the land to ducks year round? I don't mean keep it flooded. I mean, do you have a farmer you have to work with? If you can avoid having to deal with crops, it'll be a lot easier. Farmers love to complain about "all that mud".

Call a DU biologist. See if they might have an ability to help.

CS78 said:

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Ive done a few wetlands with success. There's lots of variables and a lot of it cant be addressed without looking at the actual property.

It sounds like you have a pretty good source of water which is 2/3rds of the battle. Will you be able to back up enough land to attract birds without pushing water onto your neighbors.

What is the grade of the land? Ideally, you want it to be flat enough to hold water between 4"-12" deep.

If you're serious, the first thing I do is go out with a rotary laser level and flag off your pond. Figure out how much levee it's going to take to flood how much property you want wet.

Bigger isn't always better. If there's already birds in your area, I wouldn't get crazy with size. A 1 acre hole with 50 birds is often much more productive than 20 acres with 200 birds.

Can you dedicate the land to ducks year round? I don't mean keep it flooded. I mean, do you have a farmer you have to work with? If you can avoid having to deal with crops, it'll be a lot easier. Farmers love to complain about "all that mud".

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I think I have the perfect situation honestly. My family has about 700 acres maybe a half mile from the lake. Very flat and it is all farmed except on 10 acre piece that has a little drainage through it and covered with trees. It forms a little creek that runs under highway 309. Just as the rain water approaches the treeline, there is a small depression(the water is diverted that direction by the farmer's turnrows) There is one little low spot that holds water after a good rain, and it might stay there all winter(maybe 100 ft by 50 ft}

I was thinking about getting a bulldozer to push out about an acre just to enlarge the existing low spot. Any over flow would just go into the existing creek and on to the Trinity river.

Every year after we have enough rain, you can walk down there and ducks are sitting on the small puddle of water. Maybe they run from the hunters at the WMA.

Sounds like an ideal spot. You'll want to make sure you don't dig down in to sand. Many pond builders pull the material for their levee from the inside. This can sometimes expose sand and create leaks. It also leaves deep water inside the levee that is too deep for the birds to feed. And it exposes poor soil inside your wetland that doesn't grow feed as well. You really want to leave the fertile topsoil in place inside your wetland, if you can. I prefer to pull levee material from the outside.

You might want to consider a basic drain. If we got a big summer rain, it could drown out that years feed and leave you with a dead mud hole come season. Ive been happy using stand pipes on gasketed PVC 90s. You have to be in the water to adjust them but you just pull it up or down to adjust.

Consider leaving some of the brush/ trees in place. Birds tend to work lower and better into areas that have some cover. Thats just their nature. Even before you consider the advantage of being able to get hidden better. Leaving some cover might help you draw in wood ducks. Mallards seem to like it but not a must. And sometimes it helps duck weed get a foot hold. But too much shade will cut into your moist soil feed production.

Don't try to skip the laser level. Sometimes the eye and brain lie to us. The laser doesn't lie.

DU will want a 100 year easement on the property.

I build wetland habitat and I am on the east side of the Richland Chambers WMA. We bought some acreage there about 2 years ago and we have laid out two ponds and will start the first one this spring as soon as the land is ready to be worked.

I would be glad to look at it with you in the near future. Shoot me an email at jeffb@windstream.net. Maybe I can help.

Consider giving Todd Merendino an email or call.

He works for DU creating habitat. He gave me advice a few years ago

tmerendino@ducks.org

(832) 595-0663

(832) 451-4801

jrbaggie said:

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DU will want a 100 year easement on the property.

I build wetland habitat and I am on the east side of the Richland Chambers WMA. We bought some acreage there about 2 years ago and we have laid out two ponds and will start the first one this spring as soon as the land is ready to be worked.

I would be glad to look at it with you in the near future. Shoot me an email at jeffb@windstream.net. Maybe I can help.

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Thanks. Would love to pick your brain a little

If you cannot get what information you are needing and if you are interested, I handle our wetlands projects that we have going at Sam Houston State and I have been doing East Texas and Central Texas waterfowl property evaluations the last few years. I am more than happy to give ideas on best practices for most soil management and long term wetlands'. you can also come see some of the things we are doing at SHSU in regards to wetlands and waterfowl.
my email is in my profile.

maroonblood90 said:

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Call a DU biologist. See if they might have an ability to help.

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Maybe they've gotten better but I wouldn't trust DU to work on my property. I have friends with DU projects and they've all had issues. Primary complaints being too much deep water and levees that are too narrow and steep and insufficient. The WMA at Somerville is covered in failed DU projects.

CS78 said:

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maroonblood90 said:

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Call a DU biologist. See if they might have an ability to help.

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The WMA at Somerville is covered in failed DU projects.

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Which is a real shame, they were really great before they failed. Killed a lot of birds there right after they built them.

Did someone say duck pond?

You'll find me and Opie there.

In my experience digging a new pond is the beginning of the next drought!! Good Luck!!!

If either of you gents that seem to know something about this type of thing would give me a call, I would appreciate it. 409-673-3610 Name is Mike I could show you the property on Google earth and get your thoughts.

DUman08 said:

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If you cannot get what information you are needing and if you are interested, I handle our wetlands projects that we have going at Sam Houston State and I have been doing East Texas and Central Texas waterfowl property evaluations the last few years. I am more than happy to give ideas on best practices for most soil management and long term wetlands'. you can also come see some of the things we are doing at SHSU in regards to wetlands and waterfowl.
my email is in my profile.

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I just have your office number. Would you shoot me a text? 409-673-3610 Thanks

After going out and looking at the property again, it has a little more slope than I remembered. It's likely going to need an expert to decide how to level it off and levee it up. I assume you can't just hire a dozer operator for that. Where do you go?

If it's not too bad, might just need a bigger dozer. Distance that it needs to be moved will be the biggest factor on if you also need a scraper.

You can rent a laser from redtail. Might go take some elevation measurements and put pen to paper on how many yards of dirt you're looking to move.

Keep in mind you're goal is flat flat flat. You're not building a deep pond so you don't necessarily have to remove everything. You might be able to use some of the high area to fill in some lower area to get as flat as possible.

Bumping cause it has some good info

2040huck said:

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My family has farm land near Richland Chambers lake. It has an area with a small draw/weather creek running through it. The land around it is all in production(cotton/milo/corn) Does anyone have experience with converting a small portion to use for duck hunting? It's not far from the Richland chambers wma, so I know there are lots of duck in the area. Is this something DU might be able to help with?

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Yes, DU will come out. Also call your county extension agent they will help with government grants and other info. I was turned down by DU because they stopped building levies due to not wanting to kill trees to produce duck habitat (flooded timber). They were getting pushback from organizations about the loss of trees. There were landowners that would not drain the flooded timber after the season.

I don't actually think DU does biological work that far north in Texas unless it's public partnerships.