care of wild pond

My pond is human made but not lined. It is full of what looks like sphagmum moss. It is presently full of hundreds of wood frogs. Peepers will arrive any day. I wonder if there is too much of this moss in the pond. It is full and by next year it will be a lawn in water. Will I hurt the environment for these frogs and the salamanders, if I remove some of the moss? I will have green frogs in another month. This pond is certified as a vernal pool here in Mass. I am also an organic gardener, so don't want to poison anything. please advise. I have enclosed a photo of "my" wood frogs

Yes

If it looks like the pond is likely to be filled in with silt and vegetation to the extent droughts would destroy the ponds population, you might try a routine of dredging part of it, say 20% to 25% of it annually, to perpetuate a permanent body of water, while minimising risk to the habitat. Then, over time the whole pond area is cleared on average every 4 to 5 years

It's quite normal for ponds to fill themselves in with debris, perhaps at a rate of 4" per year through the natural process of accumulating plants decaying

The dredging could be timed when the frogs are less active and not spawning, the tadpoles have emerged... salvage some of the more interesting aquatic plants for re-colonising the cleared pond area

Regards, andy

sounds like your pond is silted in, becoming a frog pond. If you wanted it to be a pond again, you have to dredge it out, or worse, drain it, let it dry, redig it.. all unpleasant. (not frog friendly, but they will come back) Don't under estimate what can be done with a rake, barley balls, possibly harmless blue vegetable dye, some aeration. All of this will prolong a ponds eventual death, or more accurately conversion to a different type of habitat for different kinds of life.. a bog. Bog's are OK :-) Good luck, my sister is in the same position with her half acre (very old) pond.

if your pond is deep enough for fish...........I have had great success with Russian Amur..(grass carp)..........they keep the vegetation in check........they don't reproduce, live about 10 years........but they do get rather large, and are not legal in all states