Oregonian seaplane and other motorized watercraft operators have lost a long-fought battle to use Waldo Lake, located at 5,414 feet in the Cascade Mountains, deep in the Willamette Forest about 70 miles east of Eugene.
After the State Senate and House of Representatives voted in favor of Senate Bill 602, which prohibits most inboard and outboard motorized vehicles from operating on Waldo Lake, Governor John Kitzhaber signed the bill into law on May 16 with immediate effect. The cause for the emergency enactment was “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety,” according to the Bill. The Forest Service calls pristine Waldo Lake “one of the purest lakes in the world.”
