permaculture

[Paul Wheaton <paul@richsoil.com>]

I have 80 acres and two ponds.  Next year I plan on expanding/reworking these 
two ponds,
plus adding another dozen ponds (plus some swales and some Holtz-style 
terraces).  

The two existing dams use culverts to carry the water across the dam.  On 
both dams, the
culverts have lots of problems.  

On the upper pond, the culvert is high and frost heaves in the winter move 
it.  Two
winters ago the culvert was heaved so that the intake was higher than the dam 
and water
ran over the top of the dam.  Plus water finds its way around the culvert and 
is starting
to erode the dam.

On the lower pond, water is finding its way around the culvert and is 
starting to erode
the dam.

In the summer, the amount of water flow here is very small.  So small, that 
the water
tends to go underground in many places.  The water running into the upper 
pond is pretty
good.  The runoff from that pond eventually ends up at the lower pond where 
the water
running into that pond is zero.  Without fresh water, the water becomes warm 
and oxygen
becomes too low, making aquaculture projects difficult if not impossible.  
I'm thinking
that the solution is to make series of ponds with the runoff from any pond 
running into
something water tight and carrying the water to the next pond.  Either a poly 
pipe (which
wouldn't be enough for the spring flow, but enough for summer) or a series of 
cement
catch basins/troughs.  

Each of these ideas has problems, not to mention expense.  

I'm hoping that folks with more permaculture experience can get me going in 
the right direction.