Lots of frogs and salamanders. Pond is under the drip line of two 80 foot white oaks. In the fall I’m going to cover with brush to help keep acorns out: They dye the water brown with tannins.
That being said, this past winter, very early January, I drained the pond to clean out the acorns and the refilled it (well water) and within two weeks spotted salamanders had started laying eggs!
Start digging! I dug it all with a 6 foot iron digging pole (weighs about 25 pounds but breaks things up real well). Make sure you know where your pipes are.
Include many different depths – energy exists along boundaries – so everything that wants to live in it can.
Have at least one side on which small animals can get a drink (shallow beach vs sheer rock.
Go a bit deeper than you want the bottom to be since you’ll have some sort of rocks in the bottom over your liner. I splurged on a HDPE liner.
If you have rocks on your property, use those in the pond.
If you want fries and salamander, don’t add fish.
Leave overhangs underwater to give things a place to hide.
If you know someone with a healthy pond, get a bucket of their water and done plant cuttings to get a jump start on biodiversity.
I’ll think of some more later!
Hahaha fries* was supposed to be frogs!