 Hi there everybody one of the most commonly asked questions we get about your pond is what should I do about this tree It's on my dam. Well in general, especially if you're a new pond owner try to limit any vegetation brush Bushes trees from beginning to grow in your dam But if you have an older dam or you've inherited an old pond Then you might need to know how you should manage trees that are already existing there and a general recommendation is any tree Larger than eight inches of diameter of breast height You should keep healthy and continue to live any trees smaller than that you should go ahead and cut down So we're going to demonstrate here how you should measure a tree. Simply just take a tape measure Pull it out across and as you can see that tree is about seven and a half inches Diameter so it should be removed from your dam as you can see this is an example of what the backside of your dam Should look like although it is a little steep It can be easily mowed and maintained as you see there are no large trees or bushes impeding the structural integrity of the dam Now that we've gave you some problems that might be associated with the back side of your dam I want to discuss a few with the front side or the wet side of your dam Just the same as before you also do not want any large trees or large bushes on the front side of your dam However, you see these small bushes here. They aren't really harming the structure of the dam itself other than just impeding your fishing from shore Another problem associated with the front side of dams is commonly beavers or muskrats that may burrow or dig into your dam and they can Harm the structure itself of the dam and also beavers can try to clog up your spillway with logs and basically build a dam around it which could potentially cause flooding and other problems associated with overflowing water from your pond It's previously mentioned if your spillway pipe does become clogged by beavers or other sources This excess water will exit through your emergency spillway system This is essentially the low point in your dam and it's very important important to keep this area Clear of any structures or excess debris if a flood vent or just a regular high water vent does occur other logs exiting the Pond can get collected on this debris and cause erosion to occur on the backside of your dam and maybe even cause it to fail