C04 Attachment 1-REVISED SOW CR_Alamosa Costilla Counties Colorado CR.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

FOR NRCS CULTURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY AND RECORDATION

OF THREE PROJECTS IN COLORADO

Part I: General Information It is the mission of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to provide leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and improve our nation’s natural resources and environment. The NRCS accomplishes this mission by providing technical and financial support through several federal programs.

A. Introduction/Background The NRCS is providing federal funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Bill for three Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) projects in Alamosa and Costilla Counties, Colorado. These projects are undertakings under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and its implementing regulations, 36 CFR § 800. Historic property identification and documentation within the respective areas of potential effect (APE) is required under 36 CFR § 800.4.

This contract is for pedestrian survey and cultural resources documentation within the APEs of the following undertakings:

San Luis Valley

Project 748B05250GH is an approximately 0.9-acre project located 3 miles south of San Luis, Colorado in Costilla County. The project proposes installing structures for water control to facilitate wetland wildlife habitat management. Wetland Wildlife Habitat Monitoring is also planned; this practice is non-ground disturbing and does not require cultural resource survey. The project is located on a historic farm with acequias and one of the water control structures is being placed within the Joe B. Maez Ditch. The project is anticipated to require recording at least one or two cultural resources.

Project 918B05250003 is a 4.6-acre project located 7 miles south of Hooper, Colorado in Alamosa County. The project proposes to install 1,058.2 feet of irrigation pipeline, irrigation reservoir, 171.2 feet of irrigation field ditch, and 15 structures for water control. The practice installations are being placed within the Compass Database mapped boundary of Prairie Ditch (5AL.631), which is officially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The project is anticipated to require recording at least one cultural resources.

Project 748B05251AB is a 0.4-acre project located 3 miles southeast of San Luis, Colorado in Costilla County. The project proposes installing structures for water control to facilitate wetland wildlife habitat management. Wetland Wildlife Habitat Monitoring is also planned; this practice is non-ground disturbing and does not require cultural resource survey. The project is located within a historic farm with acequias and water control structures are being placed within Cerro Ditch (5CT.332.2 and 5CT.332.5). The project is anticipated to require recording at least two cultural resources and/or segments.

B. Scope Contractors will complete pedestrian cultural resource survey of three APEs, approximately 5.9 5 acres. The table below details the undertaking, acreage, and land ownership of each APE. The APE is the cultural resources inventory area for each project. See the attached maps of these inventory areas.

Prior to completing the pedestrian inventory, Contractors will secure all required archaeological permits and coordinate with NRCS Colorado to access the survey areas. Before fieldwork, the contractor will also complete a Class I literature review of all previous cultural resources inventories and recorded cultural resource sites within the APE and a mile buffer of the APE.

All cultural resources identified within the APE(s) shall be documented and evaluated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) according to professional standards as listed in I. C below. Contractors will complete and submit to the NRCS all appropriate cultural resource site documentation detailing the results of each inventory. Documentation will include cultural resource inventory reports, site forms, and GIS shapefiles. The reports shall also be completed to professional standards as specified in I. C below.

C. Applicable Documents Procedures for complying with the previously mentioned mandates are outlined in the following references:

· Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), as amended

· 36 CFR 800; Protection of Historic Properties

· Archaeology and Historic Preservation: Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines

· Archaeological Resources Protection Act (43 CFR Part 7)

· NRCS National Cultural Resources Procedures Handbook

· NRCS General Manual 420, Part 401

· NRCS National Environmental Compliance Handbook

· Colorado State Antiquities Act (UCA 9-8-301-308)

· Colorado Code Annotated 9-8-404; Agency Responsibilities

· Colorado Cultural Resource Survey Manual: Guidelines for Identification: History and Archaeology

· If applicable, The Bureau of Land Management Colorado State Office Handbook of Guidelines and Procedures for Inventory, Evaluation, and Mitigation of Cultural Resources

Information on Section 106 of the NHPA, 36 CFR 800 and the Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines is available from the following National Park Service website: http://www.cr.nps.gov/linklaws.htm. The NRCS documents may be obtained from the National Cultural Resources website: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/cultural.html. Colorado cultural resource information is accessible on the History Colorado website: https://www.historycolorado.org/

Part II: Work Requirements Contractors shall gather sufficient information to enable the NRCS and the cooperating agricultural producers to remain in compliance with Federal and state cultural resources laws for the completion of these undertakings. Contractors shall warrant that the provided cultural resources services will comply with all applicable Federal, State, and local laws and requirements, and shall be consistent with NRCS cultural resources program goals and objectives. All work must be performed in accordance with the “Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation.” The NRCS retains the responsibility for all decision-making and consultation required of Federal agencies related to compliance with cultural resources protection laws and regulations.

Contractors must meet the Secretary of Interior’s professional standards as specified in Section 112(a)(1)(A) of the NHPA and in the implementing regulations for Section 106 of the NHPA at 36 CFR § 800.2(a)(1) and 36 CFR 800.2(a)(3). Contractors shall be used in accordance with 36 CFR 800.2(a)(3) (“Use of Contractors”). The Contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supervision, materials and incidentals necessary to perform archaeological and historical surveying, recording, mapping, evaluations, and reporting. The Contractor shall furnish a qualified Principal Investigator. The Principal Investigator will be required to hold a current permit issued through the State of Colorado’s Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). The Contractor shall ensure that all approvals, authorities, rights, permits, and easements necessary for conducting the cultural resources survey have been obtained prior to initiating fieldwork.

Part III. Technical Requirements A. Pre-Field Work Requirements Prior to fieldwork, the Contractor will receive Geographic Information System (GIS) shapefiles from the NRCS that will denote the undertakings’ APE or for locating sites to be recorded. Upon receipt of the data, the Contractor shall complete a Class I Literature review to identify previously recorded cultural resources and to determine the nature of previous archaeological research in the vicinity of each APE. The literature review will primarily focus on records maintained at the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), but may also include the NRHP online database, General Land Office (GLO) plat maps, and other sources and data repositories, as necessary and where appropriate. For the purposes of this Statement of Work, the literature review will be limited to cultural resources identified within one-half mile of each APE boundary.

B. Pedestrian Inventory Requirements Contractors will be responsible for designing and completing intensive pedestrian inventories to professional standards, using transects spaced no more than 15 meters apart. Transects may be GPS-oriented, compass-oriented, contour-oriented, or meander, depending on the terrain and the dimensions of the cultural resources inventory area.

The pedestrian inventories shall result in the identification and recordation of cultural resources observable on the surface and in exposed subsurface profiles. All identified cultural resources must be recorded and evaluated for inclusion on the NHRP, as set forth in 36 CFR § 60.4. The Contractor shall provide NRHP eligibility recommendations for each cultural resource. Determinations of NRHP eligibility will be made by the NRCS in consultation with the Colorado SHPO, Indian tribes and other consulting parties, as appropriate. These determinations will lead to a determination of project effects, and possibly, to the development of mitigation measures.

All field crews shall be directly supervised in the field by a qualified crew leader. Areas that present a potential hazard to the survey crew and/or are extremely unlikely to contain archaeological remains (i.e., excessively steep slopes (>30%), areas overgrown with virtually impenetrable brush, etc.) may be avoided. Areas of extreme health hazard (i.e., hazardous materials, burning fires, etc.) should be avoided, and the location of such areas and should be disclosed to the NRCS. Changes in survey strategy due to environmental conditions shall be discussed with the COR. Significant changes to the survey strategy shall be approved by the COR prior to making the change. Artifacts shall not be collected.

C. Cultural Resources Documentation Requirements Documentation for all cultural resources will adequately record the geographic location, physical characteristics, and scientific, historic, archaeological, architectural, traditional, educational, conservation, and interpretive values. For the purposes of this Statement of Work, cultural resource sites and isolated finds (IFs) are defined using the following parameters:

· Cultural Resource Site: A site is defined as a locus of previous human activity (at least 50 years old) where the preponderance of evidence indicates either a one‑time, diagnostically interpretable use; repeated use over time; or multiple classes of activities. A site is anything that falls within the preceding definition and is more than an IF.

· IF: An isolate refers to one or more culturally modified objects that are not found within the context of a site. Importantly, these definitions do not rely on any absolute quantitative threshold to distinguish a site from an isolate.

If cultural resources are identified during the inventory that do not fall within the parameters noted above, the Contractor will be required to work with the NRCS COR to determine whether the resource(s) is a cultural resource site or an IF.

1. Cultural Resource Sites Previously recorded cultural resource sites located within the project area shall be revisited, and the site documentation updated and revised as appropriate. All sites identified during the inventory must be precisely located on a 1:24,000 scale topographical map and documented on the appropriate Colorado Cultural Resources Survey forms, according to Colorado SHPO standards. All cultural resource sites will be evaluated for eligibility to the NRHP. Sites should not be evaluated as Needs Data without previous discussion with the COR. Limited shovel testing may be conducted as part of determining site eligibility in discussion with the COR. If conditions at individual sites warrant no testing (i.e. heavy disturbance, site is on bedrock, etc.), these should be discussed in the site documentation. A GPS data collector shall be used to record the location of all sites. All GPS data must be differentially corrected.

Cultural resource site documentation must include a detailed sketch map with a legend. Sketch mapping will include all site concentrations, diagnostic artifacts, tools, structures, or features. Each sketch map will include a legend and legal location (i.e., Township, Range, & Section[s]). Mapping by a transit, total station, tape and compass, or GPS is allowed. The provenience of all features, diagnostic artifacts, and tools must be indicated on the site sketch maps. All diagnostic artifacts shall be drawn and/or photographed as appropriate. Artifacts shall be deemed "diagnostic", either chronologically or functionally (e.g., projectile points, ceramics, scrapers, drills, and ground stone). All temporal information provided by the artifacts shall be recorded on the appropriate form. A minimum of two photographs, displaying different aspects, shall be taken of each site recorded. An overall site photo is required, and pertinent diagnostic artifacts should be photographed. All petroglyphs/pictographs, stone circles, foundations, and features shall be photographed.

Historical cultural resource sites are likely or possibly 50 years old, even if this age cannot be conclusively proven. These resources shall be recorded, described and mapped in terms of the artifacts and features present (i.e., number and types of tin cans, bottles, wood and metal debris, structures, road or trail remnants, or other artifacts or features). Historic features, e.g., foundations, shall also be recorded as sites. Historic trail ruts or other historic routes shall be recorded and mapped using appropriate forms as linear historical sites. Historic buildings shall be recorded as sites by a personal who meets the SOI standard for Architectural Historian/Historian by utilizing the appropriate Colorado SHPO built environment forms. The Contractor shall review and edit all site documentation prior to submission to the COR to ensure all required data is present and provided in the required formats. Special attention shall be paid to the accuracy of location data (road numbers, distances, directions, UTM, township, range, and section. etc.).

2. IFs IFs should be documented on a Colorado SHPO Archaeological Find/Feature Form. In the survey report, presentation of IF information in a table format within the report text is acceptable. The location of the isolate shall be marked on a USGS 1:24,000 scale topographic map. Diagnostic artifacts shall be sketched or photographed, as appropriate.

D. Reporting and Deliverables Requirements Upon completion of fieldwork, the Contractor shall produce a cultural resources report for each undertaking that details the results of each pedestrian inventory. Multiple undertakings within the same NRCS Area may be grouped in a single report after discussion with the COR. The report format and content shall be sufficient to satisfy current Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation as well as the OAHP’s Colorado Cultural Resource Survey Manual Guidelines for Identification: History and Archaeology. The survey report shall contain sufficient information to permit the NRCS to make an informed determination of project effects. In addition, the information must be clear enough that an outside party would understand the basis for the determination of eligibility to the NRHP and proposed finding of effect. The survey report shall include:

· A purpose statement and full project description, including anticipated direct and indirect impacts, location and total acreage, map reference, legal description, general environmental description, and the historic context by which sites will be evaluated. Names and duties of personnel conducting the inventory and dates of the field work shall also be included.

· A summary of previous archaeological research in the general area.

· A thorough description of utilized field methods.

· The inventory results with a description of each cultural resource site located in the project area, including previously recorded sites both relocated and non-relocated.

· Eligibility recommendations to the NRHP (specific criteria must be assigned to each resource according to 36 CFR § 60.4) for each known cultural resource in the APE. Consideration should also be made for the cultural resource’s potential to answer research questions identified in the report’s historic context section.

· Clear, specific, and consistent mitigation recommendations (i.e., avoidance/redesign, fencing, monitoring, testing, data recovery, and/or cancellation of all or part of the project) for historic properties in the APE.

· A summary discussion of conclusions and recommendations.

· A list of all references.

· Project maps at the 1:24,000 scale showing the area inventoried, site locations, isolated find locations, etc.

· All site documentation including cultural resource site forms, IF forms, continuation sheets, site location topographic maps, site sketch maps, site photos, and artifact illustrations. These will be included as a detached appendix to the report body.

The Contractor shall submit a draft report for each undertaking (refer to Part III.C Special Considerations for alternatives), including all specified documentation, to the COR for review and comment. Upon receiving and incorporating the COR’s comments on the draft report, the Contractor shall generate final reports, site forms, and GIS shapefiles. Final copies shall be submitted to the COR with electronic copies of the report, cultural resource site and IF forms, project photographs, and GIS data (i.e., cultural resources inventory area, cultural resource site boundaries, diagnostic artifacts, IFs, features, etc.) collected during the inventory. GIS information must meet NRCS and SHPO standards for formatting and metadata. The information can be transferred by thumb drive or a secure platform. Contact the NRCS COR if additional information is needed.

A. Period of Performance and Payment The Contractor shall deliver a draft and a final professional survey report and all site documentation as outlined above. The following performance schedule shall apply:

· Fieldwork will be completed within 60 days from the effective date of a specific task order. The Contractor shall notify the NRCS once the fieldwork has been completed.

· Draft site forms and a draft report for each undertaking will be submitted to the COR for comment no later than 30 days after completion of fieldwork for that undertaking. NRCS will provide comments within 15 days of receipt of the draft documents.

· The final reports and site forms will be submitted to the COR no later than 15 days after receiving comments from the NRCS. If NRCS finds the final documents to be unacceptable, NRCS will provide further comments within 15 days.

· Upon NRCS approval of the final reports, NRCS will submit the final documents to the Colorado SHPO and other consulting parties within 15 days. Consulting parties shall be allowed a 30-day review and comment period. If consulting parties find the final reports to be unacceptable, NRCS will provide comments and needs for corrective action to the Contractor within 15 days of receipt of consulting party comments.

· Exceptions for delays due to weather will be allowed, though work must be accomplished as soon as the weather allows. The Contractor shall immediately notify the CO if exceptions to the schedule or specified tasks are required.

Payment will be authorized as follows:

· Completion of 50% of fieldwork: 40%

· Submission of 100% of fieldwork: 30%

· SHPO acceptance of all final reports: 30%

The Contractor shall submit a payment request via an invoice to the NRCS.

Part III: Supporting Information A. Confidentiality Information generated from the cultural resources survey completed on behalf of the NRCS is classified as CONFIDENTIAL. Its distribution and use is restricted. No one is allowed to publish or disclose any part of this information without the permission of the NRCS.

B. Place of Performance As stated previously, the APEs for the undertakings are located throughout Colorado.

C. Special Considerations The Contractor must advise the NRCS if there are any access restrictions which could delay the work. NRCS will work with the Contractor and the landowner/administrator to resolve the access issues.

Technical cultural resources questions should be directed to the COR. Contracting questions should be directed to the CO.

If determined to be most advantageous, the CO will approve upon recommendation by the COR to allow multiple pedestrian inventories to be combined into single cultural resources report to improve reporting efficiency.