Small ponds are abundant in central and eastern Texas. Most are fed byrunoff, a few by pumped ground water. These ponds are usually under landowner control and are small enough to be managed for the objectives of the owner. The extent of the resource is poorly known. Acreage datafor ponds larger than 2 acres but smaller than 40 acres have been published by the Soil Conservation Service for 1958 (457,901 acres) and 1967 (456,549 acres) (SCS 1970). Although the reported areas show a slight decrease from 1958 to 1967 some counties show drastic and unexplained decreases which call the quality of the data into question: Denton County decreased from 36,200 acres to 2,049: Andrews County from 2,000to 10; Cottle County from 5,000 to 0. Pond numbers were reported for the first time in the 1977 SCS National Erosion Inventory Estimates, (SCS 1978) where Texas is listed with 126,881 ponds smaller than 40 acres, with total pond surface area of 409,000 acres.