NORTH BAY — The heavy rain we experienced last week has made it more difficult for anglers to remove their ice huts off Nipissing by the March 31 deadline.
Many are now frozen into the lake ice and will be needed to be chopped out to be dragged ashore.
Every year, ice huts are abandoned or burned by irresponsible owners. Registration numbers are supposed to be displayed on the outside of the ice hut at least 2.5 inches high (6.3 cm) which could lead authorities to find those responsible.
But those numbers disappear when the hut is torched.
"We've seen that in the past," "Wesley McLellan, conservation officer, told BayToday. "Near the end of the month numbers start disappearing off the huts so it makes it a lot more difficult to figure out who owns it."
Penalties are more severe if cheaters get caught.
"For sure. If you don't get your hut off in time you can be issued a ticket of $150 plus court costs. If it's more severe like they've burned it or are willfully trying to hide it the maximum penalty is $25,000."
If the MNRF is forced to get the hut, often later in spring in open water, costs of recovery are added to the fine.
The MNRF says many lakes across the province, including Nipissing, have significant slush conditions and advises owners to plan ahead in order to remove the ice hut on time.
For Lake Nipissing that date is Sunday, March 31.
"We expect there will be a problem," adds McLellan. "We're trying to get people out there and start working on it now.and try and chip them out and jack them up."
Conservation Officers encourage anglers when they initially park their huts to make sure they are placed in a way that prevents them from freezing into the ice by blocking the skids up off the ice which makes removal easier to do.
Ice hut owners are responsible to remove all debris and garbage from the ice in the vicinity of their ice huts as leaving debris frozen in the ice becomes an environmental and a public safety concern. Boaters have been known to collide with wooden blocks, tarps, and ice hut parts later in the spring.
With just two weeks left, conservation officers are asking that all ice hut owners start developing a plan and implementing it on how they will remove their ice huts before the specified deadline.
If ice huts remain out on the ice beyond the deadline the matter will be investigated and may result in charges being laid against the owner of the hut.
It is an offence under the Public Lands Act to leave your ice hut out after ice break up, regardless of whether registration and removal dates apply.
Temperatures are expected to hover near the freezing mark for the next week, making for ideal shack removal weather.
Police are warning that as ice conditions begin to deteriorate and give way to spring weather warmer weather presents additional hazards. The continually warming temperatures will be creating unstable ice conditions.
