  {"id":12739,"date":"2025-09-03T12:22:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/?p=12739"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:02:30","slug":"abandoned-boat-policy-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"New policy brief on abandoned boats from Center for Water Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Abandoned boats are being left on the shores of Wisconsin\u2019s rivers and lakes. Not only are these boats difficult and expensive to remove, but it can be unclear who is responsible for removing them when the owner will not or cannot. After months of watching one of these boats sit on the shores of Milwaukee throughout the winter and well into the spring, Wisconsin lawmakers proposed changing state policy to address the state\u2019s abandoned boat problem. In the policy brief below, we take a deeper look at the issue, the proposed legislation, and potential responsive actions that could deter boat owners from abandoning vessels while at the same time quickening government response time for boat removals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Citation:<br>Ehrlich\u202f, E., Scanlan, M. (2025).\u00a0<em>Abandoned Boats in State Waters: Achieving a Clear and Efficient Response in Wisconsin<\/em>. University of Wisconsin \u2013 Milwaukee Publications<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"uwm-u-flex uwm-u-flex--wrap uwm-u-flex--left\">\n<a class=\"uwm-c-button uwm-c-button--icon-right uwm-c-button--icon-chevron uwm-u-mr-20 uwm-u-mb-20\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/policy-brief-abandoned-boats-in-state-waters-achieving-a-clear-and-efficient-response-in-wisconsin\/\" rel=\"\">Read Policy Brief<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abandoned boats are being left on the shores of Wisconsin\u2019s rivers and lakes. Not only are these boats difficult and expensive to remove, but it can be unclear who is responsible for removing them when the owner will not or &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38966,"featured_media":12740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[249,36,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-brief","category-news","category-research-impact"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>School of Freshwater Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wisconsin lawmakers have been proposing to change state policy to address the state\u2019s abandoned boat problem.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New policy brief on abandoned boats from Center for Water Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wisconsin lawmakers have been proposing to change state policy to address the state\u2019s abandoned boat problem.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"School of Freshwater Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T17:22:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-04T16:02:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/freshwater\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/595\/2025\/09\/policy-brief-water-policy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bo Charles Bayerl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bo Charles Bayerl\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bo Charles Bayerl\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ec26f84f90f61d880be29c8db27db53\"},\"headline\":\"New policy brief on abandoned boats from Center for Water Policy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T17:22:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-04T16:02:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":156,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/595\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/policy-brief-water-policy.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"In Brief\",\"News\",\"Research Impact\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/freshwater\\\/abandoned-boat-policy-brief\\\/\",\"name\":\"New policy brief on abandoned boats from Center for Water Policy - 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