Oh, that sounds like a wonderful pond. Please post pictures!! Sorry, I don't have any suggestions about newts and salamanders.

Anne

You might to do a search on line to find out all of what is native to your area. Cattails are just about native anywhere. You might want to consider some form of minnow or mosquito fish.

Do not put any fish in the pond just yet. Not until you decide on using it for newt/salamander habitat. Here is a link for native salamanders of Virginia:
Click here

And a link for native fish with links to possible sources:
Click here

And here is a source of Red Spotted Newts:
Click here

If the animals are native to your area, to quote a movie "build it and they will come"

We have never introduced frogs to our pond but we have several nice bull frogs. If newts and salamanders are native you will have them in your pond

The trick is to make the environment of the pond the as close as possible to the animals native environment.

I will post photos when I figure out how to do it on this forum.

I have searched the internet but I alway want to get some insight from others. All of you have been helpful.

The links are great. I do not plan to introduce any fish at all. I decided on the plant (in and out of water) and amphibians.

The frogs found my fish pond in a couple of day after filling it. This pond already has a few frog. I am trying to identify them but I am not good at it.

Thank you all again. I still have till spring to get everything in order.

AGE

I'm looking for native aquatic plants for my Massachusetts pond. Anyone know where I can get them?

Are you talking about a pool that you set up in your yard?
If so, how large and deep is it?
What is the bottom shaped like?

In general a Wildlife pond doesn't have aeration, filters and pumps. To support higher life forms a lower life food chain is required which means bugs adapted to conditions that would not be acceptable in even a Water Garden, let alone a Koi Pond.

While the lower life forms would like the higher O2 environment the Catch-22 is so would their enemies. The net result can be less life, which means less food for the creatures you want to support.

And the filter...what would you be removing? Whatever it is there is some lower life form that calls it "food".

Trying to improve on nature is man's folly.

Ageamd:

I've got a pond and several creeks with all kinds of plant&animals; and might be near you. Let me know if I can help.

I had a native newt in an aquarium for six years, I built my first pond and released him into it and never saw him again.

I caught many native treefrogs and released them and never saw them again.

Then I built several smaller, shallower ponds with no filters or aeration at all to grow waterlilies and within weeks native treefrogs were laying eggs and dragonflies were too.

If you build what they want, they will come...if you transport them, they may not stay

The salamanders in our area live under rocks in shallow creeks with moving water. You might need to give them the same environment.