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From growing up on a large property with its own pond I can tell you the average person today at least appears to be less likely to know the difference between a pond and a lake. We had a pond that was ¾ of a football field that my Dad had built (mostly planning, location, a rented backhoe and rain) and I don’t remember anyone who didn’t call it a lake. As much as we corrected them to tell them it was a pond the idea didn’t seem to stick, mostly because we were the only ones who seemed to care whether there even was a difference.
There is a difference between a pond and a lake and it grows primarily out of the source of creation, as with all living things – yes I said living, but we’ll get to that. A lake was made by God; a pond is always man made. As such you might expect ponds, each being made by different men, to look a lot different from one to another and to be stocked with different varieties of plant and animal life from pond to pond, and you’d be right. Some ponds are stocked with fish of one kind and some of another. And some ponds are stocked with fish of many kinds or groups of kinds that can live together, with their natural plant life under the water for food. Where fish are stocked that tend to devour each other or where the proper natural food or other living environment have not been provided you may find plant life only or just a big hole in the ground with water in it.
A lake by contrast has occurred naturally. Since no man had to commit to a certain amount of time to build it, it can be quite large and so is generally larger than any pond. Now both must be inland. That means they are a body of water surrounded by a lot of land rather than like an island which is a body of land surrounded by a lot of water. Ponds are more often stocked than lakes as lakes have inlets that carry fish but with ponds, just as men create them if man doesn’t put the fish there, they don’t get there. Lakes tend to be teaming with fish of kinds that survive together by natural occurrence. Again the inlets of water tend to nurture such an environment. A lake is also less likely to get fished out. A pond however doesn’t replace its own supply of underwater life as mentioned before.
My Dad built our pond at the old house and so I know that where you will not find lakes as part of anyone’s private property much, you can certainly expect to find ponds there. A pond is brought about successfully by careful design. You need to know that the underlying earth will not only hold the water but also feed the pond with underground springs. Dad knew that. You also need to sew underwater plant life and also construct hatching areas where one breed of fish can spawn safely from the mouths of others. This is another man made sign of a pond that you’re less likely to see in a lake or around its edges. Another difference is that as there are inlets and other connections to larger bodies of water, lakes tend to be composed of fresh water where as ponds, not fed quite so much are still water environments. Lakes can also be salt-water entities while ponds are always still water.
Lakes tend to be teaming with more life and are self-sufficient by and large. The ponds which man has built must also be maintained by man to stay alive. They are more unnatural than natural. Lakes tend to have only positive impacts on their surrounding environments where as, over time, ponds don’t and can even produce negative effects. Some positives are that having constructed a pond you know its characteristics where you wouldn’t know a lake’s. You know its depths and measurements, its inhabitants and can certainly know its cleanliness too. If you own the land you can have complete control over what is and isn’t dumped into your pond. With a lake the government can decide to put anything into it and they may or may not tell you.
Let’s get back to their creation. As stated ponds are dug by man made machines, filled by rain, underground streams and/or piping water in. Any life that then occurs is transplanted there in most cases. Lakes however occur naturally. Here’s just how. A lake, categorized also as surface water, just like ponds, are created where there is surface-water runoff or underground springs that have accumulated in a naturally occurring low spot, relative to the surrounding land mass. It's not that the water is trapped there, but the incoming water displaces outgoing water quicker than what would be needed for the area to stay dry.
And these are your proofs positive that a pond is not a lake.
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