Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Forest Service is banning gas motors on Oregon’s Waldo Lake starting this summer.  That move sparked a federal lawsuit claiming the state owns the bed of the lake, not the feds.  The issue was at the center of a second federal court hearing Wednesday in Eugene.   Pete Springer reports.

Waldo Lake is on the Willamette National Forest between Eugene and Bend.  It’s the second largest natural lake in Oregon, and has pristine water. 

The lawsuit challenging the federal gas motor ban claims only the state has the authority to regulate the lake. 

Pete Frost is an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center, a group urging the court to uphold the gas motor ban.

Pete Frost: “The legal issue before it is of immense importance.  And it is whether a federal agency such as the Forest Service can presume that it can regulate surface uses on a lake where it owns all of the land surrounding the lake in the absence of having made a formal determination that it owns the bed of the lake.”

A federal magistrate gave both sides two weeks to prepare supplemental briefings and will use that information to make a final recommendation to a federal judge.