Aquatic plants that remove nutrients from the water are called filter plants. Iris and water hyacinths are super filter plants. They will multiply so you need to break up the clumps and throw many away each year. But they are great filters. Other great filter plants are: Acorus calamus Acorus calamus 'Variegatus' Bacopa lenagera 'Variegata' Cyperus alternifolius Cyperus papyrus Eleocharis parvula Eleocharis vivipara Glyceria aquatica 'Variegata' Hydrocotyle ranunculoides 'Ruffles' Hydrocotyle umbellata Iris pseudacorus and cultivars Iris versicolor and cultivars Iris virginica and cultivars Juncus balticus 'Spiralis' Juncus effusus and cultivars Juncus inflexus Juncus inflexus 'Afro' Juncus polyanthetnus Juncus spp., African thatching rush Ludwigia arcuta Ludwigia arcuta 'Grandiflora' Ludwiia jeruviana Mentha aquatica Oenanthejavanica 'Flamingo' Oenanthe var,nentosa Pistia stratiotes Pistia stratiotes 'Aqua Velvet' Sagittaria latifolia Sagittaria sinensis Scirpus Tillaea recurva Typha

welcome!!! two new acres .. and you are fixated on this BAD SPOT ... i had the same problem when i moved to acreage ... enjoy this summer working on the other 1.98 acres ... you just moved in.. how about .. not unlike a scientific experiment.. you spend the next year or two.. studying this spot.. and its YEAR ROUND water patterns ... and THEN think about planting something there.. you just moved in.. how have you come to conclusions at this point???? .. heck i am in adrian MI. and in a normal spring.. the ground would have thawed barely last week ... and it is not uncommon to have standing water at such time ... if water does actually remain a year round issue.. how about you fill in the hole.. regrade.. or whatever.. and then think about planting there... and i am pretty sure.. no tree .. will fix a drainage or water issue ... come on wench.. you're a lab rat.. think analytically ... my total GUESS... its a transitory spring issue.. and most likely.. you are not limited as to plant choice.. depending on your native soil structure ... i would start .. by digging a hole .. and finding out if you are dealing with clay .... and then do a perk test.. as to drainage in your garden ... then the yearly water pattern ... and then a plant ... i hope that is gentle enough.. i got wound up on your lab-ness ... and analogizing to that ... good luck ... ken

Bevangel: Yes! I did ask him. He had planned to build and then he sold his very successful small business and he built a very large home on a ton of property in the next town over. My builder has actually seen the home and says it is a very impressive thing. Our lot is nice, but cannot handle a mansion. He put the lot on the market in 2008 and then decided to build a driveway to help it to sell. One of the workers doing some clearing accidentally cleared in a wetland area. That was reported and then the land went under wetland mitigation/monitoring for three years (the city would come check on the wetlands to make sure they had not been disturbed). He could not have the lot on the market during the monitoring because who is going to build on lot with wetland mitigation taking place? So the mitigation ended in late 2011 and he put it back on. It was then simply priced too high. So like I said we caught after a 50K drop. He just wanted to be done with it and get it sold. Luckily he had the resources for all of this or it would have been a major headache. When we put our offer in there was already an offer from a builder wanting to build a spec home but he needed financing and we did not so he went with our offer as he had grown attached to the idea of a young family building there- which is exactly what we are! Match made in land-buying heaven I guess (well I hope!) :) I will ask about eagles and other species and look into storm water management. Thanks for all the responses so far!

no my tank definitely needed replacement. the output baffle was gone (corroded, dissolved). that could've been replaced with PVC, but the 2nd chamber manhole rim was also gone/corroded. so the lid fell in. at that point there was no effective way of keeping surface/rain water from flooding the tank and hence the field. ironically, my county health department did not require me to replace it. they flushed a dye pack, ran 50 gallons of water, and when the dye didn't surface in the field they said it "performed satisfactorily". of course they weren't here whenever we had heavy rains and effluent surfacing in the back yard. technically speaking, since my tank had no output baffle for (years maybe?) my field lines are probably clogged with debris to some extent. I'm keeping an eye on that. I have 9 lines each 100ft long. the first two drop boxes i opened and found what I can only describe as giant "sludged hair balls" clogging the lines - I could only clean out as far as I could reach (a very nasty job). the other 7 boxes were clean. with the new tank in place the last 5 lines stay completely dry all year whereas before they were all full of water all the time. in your case I'd put a hose in the tank and fill it -- this may take all day. then see if the water level drops back down - and how quickly it drops. measure the levels with a long stick. this will give you a sense for how much water may be leaking. if its a slow leak and not a big breach of the tank they can actually repair it - although that may not be a good long term fix. but replacement is a big nasty job that will destroy your back yard -- just know what you're getting into before you do that.