What are you planting around your ponds?

easiest and best bang for buck will be two natives…wax Myrtle and black willow for woody shrubs/small trees. In place of the cattails (be forewarned, you are not going to be able to remove them completely), plant LA blue iris and spider lily. If you want larger trees, bald cypress/river birch/willow oak. For shallow wet areas and right along banks pickerel weed is also and excellent choice.

all those trees can be planted right up to the bank edge or farther back, doesn’t matter. Wax Myrtle and willow especially are not picky. If you are wanting to increase fish habitat they’ll appreciate the shade right up at the bank.

if it were me I’d go dig up a bunch of both out of a wet woodsy area. Just be careful not to transplant any noxious weeds when you do it. You can find irises (blooming now) in ditches all over the place. For larger trees I would buy container grown. If you want willow oaks come see me in Hammond I’ll send you home with as many as you can carry

I am in BR and have a pot with 20-30 1-year-old 12-18-inch-tall cypress seedlings if you want them

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Would I have to worry about cypress knees growing all through my yard?

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probably...but the majority will line the pond bank.

Average water depth was 7 Ft and according to the Louisiana pond management guy I do not have a dam to worry about

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If you want larger trees, bald cypress

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Just take note that if you plant bald cypress, you will have cypress knees coming up all over the place, not just in water. There is a variety called Pond Cypress that grows faster than bald cypress and doesn't have knees.

Plant a row of non-reproducing clumping bamboo as a natural vegetative border closer to the highway then to your pond though

Or magnolia

We have a pond on our property in MS that is about 1/3 of an acre. It has buttonbush around about half of it (in the shallow areas). It is one of my favorite pollinator plants and does a great job attracting insects to feed the bream. Snakes do enjoy hanging out in them, but at least you can see them.