Yesterday while at the park I walked out to the old irrigation pond. This pond was created back in 2007 when the golf course was redesigned. They dug a 15' hole in the ground, lined it with clay, and filled it with river water. A wet well with a couple of large pumps was attached at one end for supplying water for the irrigation lines. A pump down by the river pushed water up the hill to fill the pond when it got low.
When the course closed in 2017, all the pumps were shut off. We all wondered if the pond would hold water on its own, and if/how the pond would change now that water wasn't constantly cycling in and out of it on a daily basis.
I'm no expert, but in my mind the pond has done very well. Cattails and willows along the edge, insects buzzing around, blackbirds and kingfishers and ducks in and over the water. The loud hum of frogs singing in the shallows.
I could have looked and listened all day.
If I had millions and millions of dollars I'd buy thousands of acres of cropland. Then I'd dig hundreds of holes and make a hundred ponds just like this one. Ponds to hold the rainwater on the ground, instead of being flushed into the nearest river by the ever-increasing lattice-work of agricultural drain tile and drainage ditches.
Farmers like to say they're the stewards of the land, but most of the time that's a bunch of crap.
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