GREENE – A lake conservation group is concerned about a pile of burned ice shacks and other debris on Sabattus Pond that will pose a threat to the lake when the ice melts.

The Sabattus Pond Watershed Partnership is offering a reward and trying to figure out how to clean up the mess so it won’t pollute the lake, which is bordered by Sabattus, Greene and Wales.

Charles Peillet, spokesman for the group, said the pile is the result of a huge bonfire that was set during a party on the frozen pond in February. He said it appears that five ice shacks were burned, and that the debris includes charred wood, propane and gas tanks, nails, beer containers and miscellaneous trash.

Peillet said volunteers plan to use sleds to remove the junk from the lake on Sunday. He estimated the pile would fill at least two pickup trucks.

“There’s a huge amount of residue of various things that will contaminate the lake,” Peillet said. “It’s too bad people have to be educated about these things.”

Dozens of ice fishermen each year generally set up 70 to 100 ice shacks on the lake, which is known for its northern pike.

Peillet said that a group of people gathered for a party in a cove on the northern end of the lake during a weekend in early February. He said that’s when somebody apparently dragged the ice shacks to the site and set them on fire.

Sabattus police Sgt. Rick Barnes said he was called by a man whose ice shack was burned. When Barnes investigated, he found that somebody had cut the ropes that held the shack to the ice and then tied the shack to a vehicle and dragged it more than half a mile to the site of the party.

At one point, the shack tipped over while being dragged, leaving bits and pieces over the ice, Barnes said.

Barnes said when he arrived at the spot of the bonfire, only one shack had been burned, and that the fire was still smoldering.

Peillet said he has been told the partygoers returned to the site that night and randomly dragged four more ice shacks to the site to burn in the fire.