Advice sought: New pond in the Willamete Valley,

Hi!

Just dug out a pond for a friend. Initially, I was going to post here for advice on plant varieties that would do well with our wet winters and long dry summers (4 months without rain)….but now we are going to get almost two inches of rain this weekend so advice on erosion prevention would be appreciated too.😬

I’ll get it seeded (white clover, NW pasture mix, vetch, trit., and a 1lb bag of native wild flower) but none of these will be relevant  for this weekends rain event. I’ll spread a few bales of hay on the slopes to help reduce erosion…but this is a lot of rain for a fresh dug and bone dry area. Other thoughts on erosion minimization?

Any thoughts on getting this pond ecological kick started and maintained? Main goal here is slowing water and creating habitat for wildlife and natural beauty. Food for bees would be great as flowering plants  gets sparse toward the end of summer.

Here is a drone video and a couple close up shots.

That pond looks small and shallow, what is its purpose?

Oregon can be real anal about creating ponds. Oregon is one of those states that own the rainfall. You can harvest rainfall from your house but collecting run off from fields can be problematic without proper permiting. Vetch, elderberry, chokecherry, willow come to mind when talking erosion control.

Thanks for the plant advice. My friend got all the necessary approvals for the pond.

The pond is 115 feet long and 55 feet wide at its maximum. This is constrained by the property boundary.

Max depth is 10 feet but mostly about 6 feet deep. Water level is only 3 feet above lowest natural grade, rest of depth made by digging down.

Intent of the pond was in the original post: “ Main goal here is slowing water and creating habitat for wildlife and natural beauty.”

Looks like it will be a great addition. If I was fortunate enough to have that set up I'd try and plant plants that have a secondary role producing fruit.  OSU has these suggestions.
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/collection/trees-shrubs-erosion-control

Howdy, neighbor! I've got nothing for this weekend, because plants take longer than that to spread roots. But in the longer term, this site has a list of Oregon native plants for erosion control, sorted by wet vs dry and shade vs sun: https://www.boskydellnatives.com/erosioncontrol.htm

Since you're talking about a pond, I'd call out wapato in particular as an aquatic native to the Willamette Valley that loves shallow ponds. It is also a food source for both humans and wildlife; the Kalapuya people harvested the edible tubers, ducks eat the seeds, and beavers/muskrats can eat the entire plant.

The photos are certainly deceptive, its actually a reasonable size. Great.

Looks awesome, really enjoyed the video too!

Well, looks like the first rain in 4 months will be significant. 1.5 inches starting tonight. I went ahead and put down seed (1 lb native wildflowers, 10lbs Pacific NW pasture mix, 10 white clover). Hopefully all of it won’t be washed away.

I put down 3 bales of hay to help with the erosion.