As long as I'm mucking about in the ponding group....my sump pump makes
a big permanant puddle in my yard. Would it be insane to, instead of
routing that water properly underground into a drywell or something...
turning that area into a bog / creek / pond?

(Look - it got bigger even before I even finished my sentence. Darned
ponds.)

Sure sounds like a great solution to me!!
But then I live in an area that gets 7 inches of
rain a year so I have no experience with this
sump pump and drywell business...

But think of all the happy critters who would benefit
from an aquatic environment!

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond

Hey Angela (Southern greeting),

Providing habitat is a great thing. And, it can be a pain to get
organized and authorized.

You will face the usual questions about your site and a pond.

Your deq or some such can tell you about whether your land will hold
water or will have it drain out.

Then you need to think about the rate at which you have water to
drain. How steady? What will evaporation do? Will it still
overflow? How about critters and skeeters?

If you have a neighbor with a pond or, better, a bog such as yours
would be, that would be great.

Please keep us posted as you work through the process.

Jim