What is the guidelines/law concerning a seemingly abandoned portable shack? I know of an ice shanty set up that hasn’t been move or used in two weeks. It has no name or address on it or in it. Is this fair game?
I do believe that it is against the law to leave any portable on the ice, especialy with no name and address.
Leaving a portable on the ice is not illegal. Not having the proper documentation (permit, name, address, etc.)is illegal. That being said I would leave it alone. Call the DNR and be done with it.
My two cents.
Already called the Warden she said she has been trying to identify the owner if not moved by tuesday. She will confiscate it hold it for 30 days unless claimed if not it goes to the highest bidder.
Yep best leave it to the law or else you could be charged with stealing. Every year the DNR confiscates a number of houses and they go to the auction block. Good way for them to bank some money for future fishing.. 
I think people often leave Fish Houses for a couple weeks un-attended. 
It was a pretty nice shanty but it is getting ravaged by the wind. Its a shame to ruin a good ice house because of being to lazy to pull it off the ice.
I hope this is not my friends ice shanty. Is it on Lake Neshonoc?
Does your friend have the proper identification attached? If so, then it probably isn’t 
If it doesn’t, it needs to have it attached soon.
I seen a similar situation to this a couple years ago out on Lake Onalaska. SOmebody had left a Clam suitcase style out on the ice for quite awhile. It pretty much froze into the ice. After a week a couple guys went around asking about the shack. Nobody claimed it and they went and spudded the thing out of the ice and took it home. There was also a permenant left at the dam in Dresbach a few years ago as well. It eventually blew over on its side and sat until the ice melted and it went through. I found part of it that spring downstream up against the shore 
Personally, if you are going to put a shack out on the ice and NOT take care of it and somebody else claims it, you had it coming. We are not talking about something that is legally identified but about the shacks that are clearly abandoned
No it is not your friends shack.
If it isn’t yours, you probably shouldn’t take it.
However, you did right by contacting the DNR.
Few years ago there was a nice little permanent 2 man shack on a local lake, no name, no nothing. It was March 16th. I beilieve, and now its mine. If its nobodys shack on a lake after the first weekend, what do ya do i figured.
The DNR has informed me the situation has changed. The shack blew up onto the bank which belongs to the USFWS not the DNR. So they gave me a contact at the USFWS to see what they want to do about it.
Here is what I found out about the whole situation. It is in a refuge area. It is illegal to leave any shack unnattended in refuge areas. After 24 hours they are confiscated by USFWS. They then wait until they have a surplus of items and have a public sale. The only thing that can be left unattended in a refuge area is a boat and that has a 3 day time limit. Now, if it was in a state area the DNR would confiscate it after failure to locate owner. After the paper work clears the court the warden who conficates it then finds someone in the field to sell it to.
“Many items, such as ice shelters, traps, and tree stands are just sold “in the field”. After the court confiscates the item the local warden finds someone who wants to buy the item. Now days all firearms have to be destroyed at the State Crime Lab unless used for hunter education purposes…what a shame.”
That is the email I got from the DNR
To bad it wasn’t on state property I would have had a nice shack for about $30.
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