QuillStewardship_AppendixA.docx

APPENDIX A

SECTION I – GENERAL

Performance Statement of Work (PWS)

1.1 SCOPE OF WORK: This statement of work consists of conducting timber stand improvement and fuels reduction treatment activities through the commercial use of timber, felling, skidding, yarding, decking, piling, masticating, crushing, or removing designated trees from Forest Service land, and related activities. This Appendix A describes the contract requirements and specifications for noncommercial thinning and slash/woody debris treatments affecting targeted or designated submerchantable size trees, unmerchantable cull trees, and standing dead trees. This work may consist of a combination of either felling, masticating, crushing, hauling & removal, or piling.

The harvest and removal of designated merchantable non-saw and sawtimber size trees (≥ 5” DBH) is covered under the attached Appendix B Timber Removal Specifications.

The specifications for road maintenance and road reconstruction work are covered under Appendix C and D respectively.

It is anticipated that operationally, the noncommercial thinning, commercial timber harvesting, and slash/woody debris treatments may occur simultaneously. However, there is no requirement that these operations occur concurrently.

The contractor shall provide any and all labor, equipment, supplies, services, permits, supervision, workman’s compensation, unemployment, and transportation to accomplish projects on the Medicine Wheel Ranger District, Bighorn National Forest. This statement of work consists of completing tasks in accordance with Section V, and performance requirements in Section VII.

1.1.1 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: All work included in this contract shall be completed and accepted by the Government as previously identified in Section F. Special considerations are identified in Section F.4.

1.1.2 LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Project areas that are included under this contract are located on the Medicine Wheel Ranger District, Bighorn National Forest.

1.1.3 LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Contractor is encouraged to visit each project area prior to submitting pricing to determine level of difficulty such as accessibility, terrain, slope, etc.

1.1.4 ACCESSIBILITY: Specific site maps identifying units and access roads shall be provided to the contractor upon request and will be included with the contract package. Periods of operation for particular units or areas may be required. Restrictions if any are listed in the main contract under Sections F.4 Special Contract Time and Performance Restrictions and Section H.7 Requirements of Right-of-Way.

1.1.5 ACRES AND BOUNDARIES:

The boundaries of the treatment unit are marked with Orange tracer paint as described in Appendix B provision K-C.3.0.1# Cutting Unit Boundaries. Unit acreage was determined by differentially corrected Global Positioning System (GPS) data traverses. The specifications that were used to ensure the accuracy of the GPS data are in accordance with the standards outlined in the Timber Cruising Handbook (2409.12, chapter 50). Government-provided acreages are estimated. The Contractor is encouraged to visit each unit prior to submitting a contract price. The Government shall not re-measure the units under this contract.

1.1.6 CONTRACTOR: The contractor or purchaser is responsible to ensure all aspects of and requirements under the contract are met and acceptable to the Government. The contractor or purchaser, are considered the same person under this contract.

1.1.7 CONTRACTOR REPRESENTATIVE: The contractor shall provide a contract representative for the performance of the work. The name of this person and an alternate(s) who act for the contractor when the contractor is absent shall be designated in writing to the Contracting Officer. The contractor representative or alternate shall have full authority to act for the contractor on all contract matters relating to daily operation of this contract. The contractor representative and alternate(s) must be able to read, write, speak, and understand English.

SECTION II – DEFINITIONS

2.1 STANDARD DEFINITIONS - See main contract C.8

2.2 TECHNICAL DEFINITIONS

AVERAGE ACCEPTABLE STOCKING DENSITY: The desired residual stand density following a thinning treatment. Usually expressed as a minimum and maximum range of leave trees per acre.

CRUSHING: The compression, breaking, or compaction of slash, woody debris, or trees by heavy machinery such that the treated material lies within a specified proximity to the forest floor.

DBH: Diameter of the stem measured at a point of 4 ½ feet above the ground level on the uphill side of the tree.

DITCHES: Drainages along a road that lead to a cross-drain mechanism such as a culvert.

EXISTING SLASH: Woody debris from trees and brush on site prior to contractor’s operations.

WOODY DEBRIS: Naturally occurring accumulations of dead and dying downed trees and parts of trees. Generally as a result of natural pruning, wind damage, insect or disease mortality and other natural disturbances.

IMPROVEMENTS: Trails, roads, utility lines, section corner monuments, fences, structures, or other similar items owned by the Government or private landowners.

LEAVE TREES: Trees purposefully selected to remain in a stand following harvest or other silvicultural treatment in order to achieve desired objectives.

MERCHANTABLE TREE: Live or dead conifer tree, ≥ 5” DBH, that would meet the utilization specifications as listed in Appendix B.

NON-COMMERCIAL THINNING: Selective thinning to reduce the density of a forest stand generally comprised of either submerchantable size trees or unmerchantable quality trees. The trees removed have little or no monetary value, and the thinning does not produce any immediate financial return.

RESIDUAL TREES: Leave Trees and any other trees remaining in a stand following a silvicultural treatment.

SLASH: Any residue and/or tree parts such as limbs, tree tops, cull pieces, boles, other wood fiber pieces that are present and/or created as a result of harvesting, non-commercial thinning, silvicultural treatments, and related activities such as road and landing construction, or as a result of violent storms.

SPACING: The horizontal distance from the bole of one leave tree to the bole of another leave tree.

STUMP HEIGHT: The height of a remaining stump following cutting or felling of the tree. Generally measured from the uphill side. Stumps are to be cut to an angle of less than 30 degrees from horizontal.

SUBMERCHANTABLE TREES: Live conifer trees over 24 inches in height and up to 4.9 inches DBH.

UNMERCHANTABLE CULL TREE: Live or dead conifer tree, ≥ 5” DBH, which would not meet the other minimum utilization specifications as described in Appendix B due to excessive defect or inadequate piece size.

SECTION III – GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY

See Section C.5 in base contract.

SECTION IV – CONTRACTOR FURNISHED ITEMS/SERVICES

The contractor shall furnish all items required to perform this PWS.

SECTION V – PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT TASKS AND CRITICAL SUBTASKS

5.1 PROJECT WORK ITEMS: Mandatory Service work items are identified below. Acceptable Quality Levels (AQL) and performance standards are listed in Section VII – Performance Requirements Summary.

5.1.1 Non-Commercial Thinning

This mandatory fuels treatment work item consists of performing a non-commercial tree thinning of submerchantable trees to reduce the density to the Average Acceptable Stocking Density of submerchantable trees and improve the overall quality of the residual stand.

The intent of this project is to perform this non-commercial thinning throughout all 143 acres of the unit. The Forest Service realizes that additional merchantable trees, outside of the designated timber areas displayed under Appendix B, will likely need to be cut in order to access and perform all the requirements of this work item. These additional merchantable trees may be considered Included Timber as defined by Appendix B upon written agreement with the Forest Service under Appendix B contract clauses C.1.6 and D.4.1.

Silvicultural Goal and Desired Condition The overall goal is to reduce hazardous fuels while attaining a healthy, vigorous forested stand. Desireable Leave trees are described in Definitions and below. Trees will be spaced as described in the table below. Slash shall be treated as described below.

Summary Information Table

Acceptable Stocking Density Trees/Acre

A. Live submerchantable conifer trees (over 24 inches in height and up to 4.9 inches DBH) shall be cut, felled, or masticated to an Acceptable Average Stocking Density of 120 – 180 submerchantable trees per acre. For reference, average leave tree spacing for this range of stocking would be approximately 15’ x 15’ to 19’ x 19’. Leaving trees with desirable leave tree characteristics is more important than achieving uniform spacing, however, in no case shall any conifer tree under 5.0 inches DBH be left closer than ten feet to any other conifer.

B. First priority is to leave the Most Desirable Leave Trees, which have the following general characteristics:

a. Dominant Trees – Trees, which are taller, or of greater diameter on the average when compared to other trees in the immediate local area. These trees have generally not had their growth and development significantly suppressed by overtopping trees.

b. Co-dominant Trees – Trees which are generally of average height, diameter, and vigor when compared to other trees in the immediate local area. These trees have generally not had their growth and development significantly suppressed by overtopping trees.

c. Relatively full crowns and healthy, vigorous foliage.

d. Straight Bole – The bole or stem of the tree shall be relatively straight. Trees shall have a single bole and terminal leader, with branches horizontal or slightly angled to bole.

e. Free of significant physical damage, i.e., damage on no more than ¼ of the circumference of the bole, or no more than three feet of the length of the bole.

f. Free of visible disease or insect damage such as rust cankers, conks/trunk rot, mistletoe, broom rusts, dead tops, bark beetle pitch tubes or boring dust.

C. Second priority to leave are Less Desirable Leave Trees. When the desired Average Acceptable Stocking Density cannot be achieved with available Most Desirable Leave trees, then Less Desirable Leave trees may be left with:

a. Minor Defects - such as a moderate crooks or forks; a relatively small amount of physical damage.

b. Minor mistletoe or rust canker infestations D. The order of preference by species for Leave Trees is 1) Engelmann Spruce, 2) Lodgepole Pine, 3), Subalpine Fir.

E. Unmerchantable Cull Trees (see definition above) shall also be cut or masticated if they are not otherwise marked with blue or orange paint.

F. Standing dead trees between approximately 2.0 inches and 12.0 inches shall also be cut or masticated if they are not otherwise marked with blue or orange paint.

G. For all trees cut or masticated in this non-commercial thinning treatment, maximum stump height is 6.0” above the ground level, or 6.0” above natural obstacles with an angle of less than 30 degrees from horizontal. All live limbs below the cutting point shall be removed.

5.1.2 Treatment of Slash and Woody Debris

This mandatory fuels treatment work item consists of treating at least 80% of the combined contractor created slash and the pre-existing woody debris. The end result is to reduce the fuel loading in the unit, lower the wildland fire hazard from accumulations of wildland fuels, and protect the soil, water, and residual trees from damage. As specified further this slash and woody debris shall be treated with one or more of the following methods:

· Hauling and removal from the National Forest,

· Piling by hand crews or machinery,

· Crushing,

· Mastication.

A. General Requirements

a. Any slash or woody debris comprising the 20% untreated by the above methods shall be lopped and scattered to no higher than 18” above the ground.

b. All slash accumulated at landings shall be either removed from the National Forest or piled.

c. No slash, woody debris, or chips will be left outside the treatment unit, on any Forest System roads, or within 5 feet of culverts and culvert ditches.

d. No slash shall be left within 8 feet of any protected fences shown on the Contract Area Map.

B. Hauling and Removal – This method would involve loading the material onto trucks using the landing areas and temporary roads created by the commercial harvesting operations.

a. Material shall be hauled to a processing or disposal facility outside the National Forest Boundary.

b. Any hauling done under this work item would be subject to the road use restrictions in provision H.8 - Use of Roads by Contractor.

C. Crushing - This treatment technique would entail using heavy machinery to break, compress, and compact slash and woody debris that is scattered throughout the unit so as to be in contact or be incorporated with the soil over 80% of the area.

a. Crushed material must not extend more than 18” above the ground.

D. Mastication – This method involves using specialized machinery to shred, chip, or grind trees, slash, and woody debris into small pieces.

a. Any masticated material shall be treated such that 90% of the resulting chips or mulch material is less than 4” in diameter and less than 12” long.

b. Masticated material shall be distrubuted throughout treated areas to a depth not to exceed 6 inches.

E. To facilitate safe and effective follow-up prescribed burning operations, piles of slash or woody debris created by hand work or machinery shall be constructed and placed as follows:

a. Piles shall be reasonably compact and free of soil to facilitate burning.

b. Piles shall not be larger than 50’ wide by 100’ long by 50’ high, and piles shall be no smaller than 10' wide by 10' long by 10' high.

c. Piles shall be located at least 70 feet from utility lines or poles, and at least 30 feet from other structures, protected improvements, or fences.

d. Piles shall be located at least 50 feet from residual trees. If conditions make it impractical to locate piles the required distance from residual trees, existing clearings may be expanded, or additional piling areas may be cleared as designated by the Forest Service.

SECTION VII – PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

DEDUCTIONS MEETING STANDARDS

5.1.1 Mandatory Item 1 – Non-Commercial Thinning

Submerchantable conifer trees are cut to achieve desired Average Acceptable Stocking Density Submerchantable leave trees shall conform to the criteria of desirable leave trees as specified in 5.1.1 above.All unmerchantable cull trees are felled or masticated as required.

All standing dead trees between 2.0 and 12.0 inches are felled or masticated as required.

Stump height shall not exceed 6” on uphill side of tree, or 6” above natural obstacles.

Perform random on-site inspections.

Verifying compliance through inspection plots Incentives for meeting AQL:

1. Full per unit price

2. Positive or Good Past Performance Rating Disincentives for not meeting AQL:

1. Rework at Contractor’s expense.

2. Contractor is responsible for re-inspection costs (Section G.3)

3. Negative or Poor Past Performance Rating

All of the untreated ≤20% component of slash and woody debris has been lopped and scattered to not exceed 18” in height No slash, woody debris, or chips have been left in unauthorized areas.

No slash or woody debris treated by crushing extends more than 18” above the ground.

Material resulting from mastication is less than 4” in diameter and less than 12” long.

Material resulting from mastication is spread to a depth of 6 inches or less.

All piles are within acceptable size limits.

All piles are appropriately spaced away from improvements or residual trees.

Perform random on-site inspections.

Verifying compliance through inspection plots Incentives for meeting AQL:

1. Full per unit price

2. Positive or Good Past Performance Rating Disincentives for not meeting AQL:

1. Rework at Contractor’s expense.

2. Contractor is responsible for re-inspection costs (Section G.3)

3. Negative or Poor Past Performance Rating