NIGP 91862: Horticultural Consulting

NIGP 91862 Horticultural Consulting, an Item code, encompasses practical landscape and arborist services state and local governments procure to maintain and assess urban green space, including routine landscape maintenance, irrigation system management, tree risk assessment, pruning, removal, and strategic planning for long-term forest stewardship. Recent solicitations show state and local buying concentrated in transportation authorities, city planning departments, and county commissions, with the Orange County Transportation Authority appearing as a repeat buyer across multiple facilities-maintenance contracts; work spans landscape maintenance contracts valued in the $350,000 to $550,000 range with one-year to two-year terms, arborist consulting and tree removal services with per-item pricing models (arborist exams at $300 per tree, tree removal tiered by diameter), master-plan development for urban forests, and long-term maintenance and operations strategy consulting for trail systems. Contracts typically require California Class C-27 contractor licenses or equivalent state credentials, International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist certification, and prevailing-wage compliance; many incorporate DBE participation goals and federal Inflation Reduction Act funding streams.

Recent activity concentrates in California and the Southeast, particularly Orange County and the broader Los Angeles basin (Orange County Transportation Authority IFBs 260572 and 260524 for landscaping; Pasco County, Florida IFB IFBKM27004 for median construction Phase II), Atlanta (Atlanta BeltLine Inc. proposal RE2026121 for trail maintenance strategy due October 22, 2026; City of Atlanta DCP pre-advertisement PE66062NONST2027000000448 for Urban Forest Master Plan with 20 percent SBE participation goal and April 2029 completion), Florida (City of Orlando RFP26-0203 for arborist consulting and tree removal with May 21, 2026 response deadline and federally funded via U.S. Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act), and North Carolina (City of Charlotte RFP 2692026243 for landscaping and tree planting due July 23, 2026). Most opportunities are IFBs or RFPs on prevailing-wage contracts; cost-based selection is common in landscape maintenance work, while qualifications-based selection dominates consulting-level engagements such as master-plan development and feasibility studies.