SERAL G-Z Pre Bid Tour Notes.pdf

SERAL G-Z Pre-Bid Field Tour Notes

August 2, 2023

Forest Service Personnel

Curtis Yocum, Mark Phillipp, Katherine Baker, Jason Dierberg, Marcie Easter, Hailey Gleason, Brian

McCrory, and Brady J. McElroy

Industry

Name Company Email

Liam Maier Earth Force Tech. LMAIER@EARTHFORCE.IO

Justin Walker California Reforestation, Inc. Mail@calreforest.com

Chris Trott CT Bioenergy Consulting etbioenergy@gmail.com

Jeff Thomashow Earth Force Tech. JThomashow@earthforce.io

Blake Cadigan BurnBot Inc. Blakecadigan@burnbot.com

Adam Frese Westside Forestry Consulting adam@westsideforestrysonsulting.com

Nate Gray Nate’s Tree Service ngra@natestree.com

Hannah Grabowski Sierra Pacific Industries hgrabowski@spi-ind.com

Joe Williamson Bamford Jwilliamson@Bamfordinc.net

0915 @ Summit Ranger District

- Introduction from Brian McCrory

Intent: tour the area and be available for questions. Treatment Areas 1, 2, and 3, identified with large maps for All to see. Introductions of Forest Service Personnel and all Industry present.

Q - There is only one stop at Campoodle creek? A - Yes, that is the intent.

Discussion – There is SPI haul out Beardsley road so watch out. We are stopping in treatment area 3 but driving through the other two treatment areas. Industry had a concern that not all the maps provided electronically were georeferenced. Forest Service confirmed that all three maps are georeferenced and ready for Avenza use.

1100 Field

Q – What are virtual boundaries and why are they used? A – On the maps are virtual boundaries that are for prescription changes within units for Wildlife. They are not designated on the ground, but are a

GPS vector file, that shows the exact location.

Discussion – Brian spoke more about Wildlife. Surveys are still occurring, so there is a possibility of changes. New methods equate to smaller and fewer PAC’s (protected activity centers).

mailto:LMAIER@EARTHFORCE.IO mailto:Mail@calreforest.com mailto:etbioenergy@gmail.com mailto:JThomashow@earthforce.io mailto:Blakecadigan@burnbot.com mailto:adam@westsideforestrysonsulting.com mailto:ngra@natestree.com mailto:hgrabowski@spi-ind.com mailto:Jwilliamson@Bamfordinc.net

Q – How many surveys? A – Ongoing surveys for the next two years. Birds do move.

Discussion – Are current maps are based on recent surveys, so they are a good representation.

FS Q – Any road/engineering questions?

Q – Where are the water sources? A – None identified.

Discussion – There are potential water sources identified on the maps. It will be part of the engineering process, then through aquatics and other specialists. There is a possibility of water off SPI ground.

Q – What about Deposits, none are included right? A – No.

Discussion – There is no road maintenance deposit, but road maintenance will occur. Stumpage deposits, have a payment bond. Will be a performance bond for engineering.

Q – What about invoicing? A – Case specific reasoning. Completed acres, no partial units, or acres.

Q – Strategy for items not listed? A – Forest Service tried to include all, but if we do need something it will have to happen.

Discussion - Forest Service talked about timing. We want competition. We have lots of the quantities known. That is good. If your company has problems, let us know as soon as possible.

Q – Was the Forest Service information on the maps verified with boots on the ground? A – No.

Discussion – during layout (prep) item, units will be changed. Fuel units probably modified.

Example – Mechanical prescription changed to hand prescription because there is no machine access.

Forest Service tried to include everything so we have a bid price on everything, that way we can negotiate through good communication.

“Good Communication Is Key”

We are anticipating a lot of modifications. Prescriptions are set for mastication and fuelbreaks. Timber prescriptions are in draft form right now and will be finalized after stand exam item is completed and prior to prep.

- Example in the woods of our expected end-result.

Looked at our locations Fuelbreak unit and Harvest unit. Talked about the prescriptions –

Openings, piling, spacing (radial thinning).

Earth Force – Start Up

Spiel – Electronic interface for Industry. Devices to understand how work is being implemented and how work can be tracked for completion. Developing tools to use for basal area and measuring residual basal areas, so it can be known if a prescription has been met.

Q – Haul route? A – The main haul route is 5N02.

Discussion - Haul route roads are identified on the map with ‘U’ designation. Areas are put together based off haul routes, like a regular sale area.

Q – NEPA? A – NEPA is good and signed. No litigation.

Q – Road deposits? A – No deposits on Forest Service roads.

Q – What about SPI roads? A – Cost share roads with agreement between Forest Service and SPI.

Q – What is the appraisal process? A – Forest Service will use its Transaction Evidence Appraisal.

Discussion – Stand exam – final prescriptions – layout – cruise – appraisal for sawtimber. In the solicitation notes section, there may be bid premiums or not depending on the appraisal. There may be a need for market related research for the appraisal.

Forest Service assurance to have good, viable timber units.

We are keeping the service work a pay item, so the sawtimber can subsidize other work like biomass down the road.

Logging costs will be taken for our appraisal process from the stand cards and work done during the prep item.

Forest Service does not want to see imbalanced pricing: don’t get your proposal thrown out. No extra costs just to mitigate your risks.

Q – Areas 1, 2, and 3 schedule of completion and risks?

Discussion – Forest Service thought about inflation and market changes. It is important to write proposals that reflect what will be done first using today’s costs. There could be alternate proposals included that supplement your actual proposal to talk about risks and other concerns.

“Start A Good Conversation”

Q – What is the proposed schedule? A – There are treatment area end dates. #1 – 2027, #2 – 2028, and

#3 – 2029.

Q – How does the Forest Service have funding for this project? A – There is multi-year funding available and that is all we can say.

Discussion – There are mandatory items and optional items. We have mandatory resources covered and we are good. Intent to fund as much as we can with the money we have. Our NEPA provides us much flexibility. Forest Service emphasizes good communication will make this project better.

There could be a primary proposal and an alternate proposal: you could address potential problems. If you don’t submit anything, we don’t have anything to work off. There are ways to mitigate your risks.

Before award the Forest Service will negotiate greatly. We do not want to bankrupt a company. The

Forest Service intent was to get known quantities to reduce risks.

Q – Are there protections for market changes? A – If markets fall, we negotiate and come to a bi-lateral agreement. IRSC’s are not escalated. For sawtimber rates they are set even if the market falls.

- NEPA is good and does not expire. IRSC’s does not get MRCTA’s, urgent removal extensions, etc. There are more flexibilities with IRSC’s. Extensions can be made by agreement through conversations. At the end, maybe the sale goes a different route because of market changes: IRTC, open market, etc.

- There are 7 sale areas, within the three treatment areas.

- Alternate proposals are valid to address risks and problems.

*If there are questions you don’t want to ask right now, get them in by phone or email immediately. *