LA GRANDE — A controversial plan for forest management in the Red Apple portion of the Mount Emily Recreation Area will go forward, but over a longer timeline.

The Union County Board of Commissioners voted Jan. 5 to award ReedCo Forestry a contract for the project, which will include some logging in the 300-acre Red Apple area of MERA. The contract will pay the Union County-based business $500 an acre for its work.

The Red Apple area is filled with popular trails for hiking and mountain biking and other nonmotorized activities. Its users have expressed concern that while fire prevention and forest health are paramount, the proposed project could damage the area’s trails and landscape.

The contract calls for ReedCo to do most of the thinning and removal of fuels this winter and in the winter of 2022-23. The original plans were for it all to be done this winter. The bidding process for the work was postponed to allow Union County officials more time to take public input on the project.

Sean Chambers, Union County’s parks manager, said he will meet with Jesse Reed, the owner of ReedCo Forestry, to discuss plans for his company’s work, which could start as soon as this week.

Chambers said the two-year timeframe will reduce the negative impacts of the project. He said it is best to do forest management work in the winter, when the ground is harder due to freezing conditions and there is snow cover. This reduces the chance of equipment damaging the land.

“Having an extended work window will allow for protection of trails and allow for open public access during the spring and summer without interference with any operations,” he said.

ReedCo Forestry was the lone bidder for the project. The company is familiar with MERA.

In 2021, it created a 6-mile firebreak along MERA’s Mainline Trail.

Chambers said ReedCo did an excellent job of creating the firebreak, adding the forest management project will be much different because the firebreak work involved clearcutting but the work in the Red Apple area will not.

He said trail corridors of the Red Apple, Rock Garden, Lower Hotshot and MERA loop trails will be flagged to help ReedCo identify them, avoid damaging them and limit the crossing of them.

Chambers said any damage that may occur will be repaired by the county. He added that in the interest of safety, there will be some closures during the work.

“These closures will be limited and may allow for weekend access, something to be coordinated with the contractor,” he said.

The project area — 300 acres — is about 8% of MERA’s total acreage of 3,700 acres.

Forrest Warren, a member of MERA’s advisory committee, said he does not like the idea that the management project will be completed over two winters because it means the Red Apple trails may be tied up over a longer span. Still, he sees an upside because the work will be done when there is frozen ground and snow cover.

“It will be a lot better on trails,” he said. “There will be a lot more no-trace logging.”

Warren, echoing a concern expressed by many in late 2021, said he wishes more public input had been given serious consideration before the decision to move forward on the forest management plan was made, but he said he is impressed with Chambers’ concern for MERA.

“Sean has the best interest of MERA at heart,” he said.

In his address to the Union County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 5 before its vote, Chambers noted there were a number of meetings during the last two years where plans for forest management work at Red Apple were discussed, including a board of commissioners work session in August 2020 that was followed by a field review at the Owsley Canyon Trailhead not long after that meeting, as well as a field review in November 2021.

The parks coordinator believes the county has been transparent about the development of its plans for a forest management project meant to protect a cherished portion of the Mount Emily Recreation Area.

“We all appreciate what a gem this is for our community,” Chambers said, “and we are intent on making it shine brighter.”