Waldo Lake (OR) - Hearing & Final Rulemaking Help Request

[jjbaker]

Hearing On January 31, 2013 - Need Letters In Support Of ODA's Proposed Rules

The Oregon State Department of Aviation (ODA) Board will be holding a Public Hearing on the proposed Final Rule for Waldo Lake on January 31, 2013. The Hearing will be held in the Ken Long Conference Room at the Willamalane Center, 250 South 32nd Street, Springfield, Oregon between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. This meeting is the culmination of the action by the ODA Board to craft rules that will allow continued use of Waldo Lake by seaplanes. If you are unfamiliar with this issue, or need a refresher, please visit the Columbia Seaplane Pilots Association (CSPA) website for the story. Read, particularly, Aron's May 6, 2012 Bull-a-Ton article Waldo Lake: Finding Common Ground

CSPA greatly appreciates the work of the ODA Board in attempting to find common ground with the other users of the lake. The ODA effort has been met with opposition by those not wanting motorized use of the lake. Oregon Wild and the U.S. Forest Service are so opposed to this rule that they categorically refused to participate in crafting the Temporary Rules back in May. They and their constituents will not, however, refuse to participate in this hearing and will no doubt be there in force. For this reason CSPA is asking that any local pilots, seaplane and otherwise, that can take the time to support the ODA Board come to the meeting and sign up to speak. It will probably be a rather lively proceeding.

If you are out of the area and interested in preserving you rights to use the Sovereign Waters of the State of Oregon in the future you can send a brief, or lengthy, letter or email to the Oregon Department of Aviation expressing your support for the Board action to:

Oregon Dept. of Aviation Board
3040 25th St., SE
Salem ,Oregon 97302-1125
FAX (503) 373-1688
Or Email: [email protected]

Thanks in advance,

Further information can be found on the C-SPA.org website as well as seaplaneforum.com -

Last year, the number of letters raised (then to OSMB) from the seaplane community was ~ 400.
Our opposition and those in favor of getting rid of seaplanes at any expense raised ~ 4000.

To say it in simple words, we could use some more people penning respectful and factual letters supporting ODA and hope that pilots as well as associations will make an effort to help.