2020_FINAL_SOW_NorthEden_Christy_Canyon_RockCrk_Silem_Veg Revised (1).docx

Statement of Work

Vegetation Community Monitoring for the

North Eden Fire and Bear River Priority Habitat Management Area, Christy Canyon Allotment, and the Rock Creek-Silem Ridge Treatment Areas

BLM Kemmerer Field Office

PROJECT SUMMARY

The contracted work will include three separate vegetation sampling efforts clustered in southwestern Lincoln County, Wyoming south of Cokeville and west of Kemmerer. Two of these efforts will employ a sub-set of techniques described in the Assessment Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) methods, whereas the third will employ the standard full suite of AIM methodology. We estimate the total time required for a four-person field crew to complete sampling would range between 6 and 12 weeks each year for two field seasons between September 2020 and July 2023. Each effort is described in the three Tasks below.

The North Eden fire burned 13,763 acres around the tri-state border of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming in August of 2018. In Wyoming, the burned area comprised 3,252 acres of BLM-administered land, 1,436 acres of private, 213 acres of state land and 65 acres of US Fish and Wildlife Service refuge lands.

The burned area comprised 26% of the Bear River PHMA for sage-grouse. Initial observations indicate that the wildfire reduced sagebrush canopy cover below 5% throughout the burned area. The Wyoming Governor’s Executive Order 2015-4 - Attachment F (EO 2015-4), specifies that actions or events that impact sagebrush canopy coverage are categorized as “disturbance.” Because the wildfire reduced sagebrush coverage over a significant portion of the PHMA, the Resource Management Plan for the Kemmerer Field Office (BLM 2010) and Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse Approve Resource Management Plan Amendment (ARMPA; BLM 2015) require an adaptive management response, as well as monitoring to determine the trend in sagebrush canopy coverage over the next 5 years.

Observations of vegetation composition and coverage within the North Eden perimeter during the 2019 growing season indicated that native herbaceous vegetation communities were intact and responding to above-average spring moisture. These observations suggest that active management of the burned area would likely be limited to chemical control of annual invasive grasses. Monitoring of invasive grasses is necessary to guide treatment application.

No vegetation data are available that adequately characterize range condition in adjacent unburned areas of the Bear River PHMA (i.e., the Christy Canyon allotment). Monitoring unburned areas of the allotment will establish baseline data for future range monitoring and provide a useful reference for changes in sage-brush canopy coverage within the burned area in similar ecological sites.

Portions of the Rock Creek-Silem Ridge areas are proposed for chemical, mechanical, and prescribed fire treatments over the next 10 years to control invasive grasses, and to improve range forage and wildlife habitat. Few upland vegetation data are available at these sites, and monitoring will establish baseline data for determining treatment effectiveness.

Completion of Tasks 1 and 2 will allow monitoring of changes in sagebrush canopy coverage within the perimeter of the North Eden fire, spatially extensive monitoring of hazardous fuels (i.e., annual grasses), collection of baseline vegetation conditions to inform range management decisions, and allow comparisons between burned areas and similar unburned areas within the Bear River PHMA. Task 3 will meet requirements established by FA IM 2019-012 and Guidebook (https://aim.landscapetoolbox.org/) for monitoring fuels treatments and allow pre- and post-treatment comparisons of vegetation conditions in the Rock Creek-Silem Ridge treatment units.

CONTRACTOR SHALL COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING TASKS

Task 1 – Monitoring changes in vegetation composition using line-point intercept (LPI) methods within the North Eden fire perimeter (2 years) Task 2 – Measuring vegetation composition using line-point intercept (LPI) methods within unburned portions of the Christy Canyon allotment (1 year) Task 3 – Conducting Assessment Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) sampling in the Silem Ridge- Rock Creek fuels treatment area (1 year)

TASK DESCRIPTIONS

Task 1 – Monitoring changes in vegetation composition using line-point intercept (LPI) within the North Eden fire perimeter (2 years) The selected contractor shall follow the requirements, methods, and protocols below to gather two field seasons of data at each sampling location prior to July 31, 2023. The selected contractor will coordinate with the BLM to acquire the polygons, discuss the monitoring methodologies and answer any questions related to the monitoring effort.

· Sampling locations will be generated for each stratum by using ArcToolbox in ArcMap 10.X

· The number of sampling locations for each soil type (stratum) will follow Table 1.

· Field sampling methods for LPI will follow protocols described the USDA (2005) monitoring manual available at https://aim.landscapetoolbox.org/ as modified with supplemental methods to gather data used in the Habitat Assessment Framework (HAF) protocols (Stiver et al. 2015, Appendix B) for sage-grouse habitat monitoring. Point rejection will be in accordance with the standards outlined in the Assessment Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) point rejection protocol (USDA 2005; https://aim.landscapetoolbox.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/12/RejectionCriteria_161228.pdf).

· Deviations from other common BLM sampling protocols include:

· Sampling will be limited to LPI vegetation sampling only; no other sampling methodology will be employed for this task

· Each sampling location will comprise a single, 50-m transect oriented at a random azimuth.

· Sampling (pin drops) will be conducted at 0.5-m intervals resulting in 100 points per sampling location

· Whereas witness posts will be placed in accordance with standard protocols, permanent transect markers following Gearhart and Launchbaugh (2015) will be placed at 0 m and 50.5 m to mark the beginning and end of the transect, and locations of all markers will be recorded using GPS accurate to within 3 m.

· Supplemental information for sage-grouse will be limited to sagebrush height and sagebrush shape as described in Appendix B of the HAF (Stiver et al. 2015, Appendix B)

· Two “plot” photos will be recorded at each transect. One plot photo will be taken showing the transect as viewed from the beginning (0 m) of the tape and include a photo board of known dimensions that shows the site, sampling date, transect number, and other relevant plot information to allow relocation of the site for subsequent monitoring. A second photo will be taken from the same location (0 m on transect) from chest-height, facing straight down perpendicular to the soil surface. These nadir photographs will include the same photo board at the lower right margin of the image as an indicator of scale. This image should utilize sufficient shutter speed to avoid motion blur due to operator movement or vegetation movement and should not include the operator’s shadow.

· Communicate potential sage grouse seasonal habitat for each transect location and fill out respective S-Forms provided by HAF guidelines to KFO biologist for habitat assessment determination.

Task 2 – Measuring vegetation composition using line-point intercept (LPI) within unburned portions of the Christy Canyon allotment (1 year) The selected contractor shall follow the requirements, methods, and protocols described in Task 1 (above) to gather one field season of data at each sampling location prior to July 31, 2022. The number of sampling locations for each soil type (stratum) will follow Table 2.

Task 3 – Conducting Assessment Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) sampling in the Rock Creek-Silem Ridge fuels treatment area (1 year) Collect and manage 1 year of vegetation and soils data in accordance with the Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) strategy by July 31, 2022.

After the contract is awarded, the contractor will coordinate with the BLM to acquire the polygons, discuss the monitoring methodologies and answer any questions related to the monitoring effort. The contractor will be responsible for defining and collecting data at 15 points randomly distributed throughout polygons provided by the KFO. Data will be collected using the “Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland, and Savanna Ecosystems – Second Edition” (available from USDA 2005; http://www.landscapetoolbox.org/). The contractor will also collect supplemental data including sagebrush shape, forb diversity, and annual plant production.

At each site the contractor will collect data in accordance with the “Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland, and Savanna Ecosystems – Second Edition”. All the Core Methodologies will be utilized to include the following:

· Plot Characterization

· Including a description of the soil horizons as outlined in the monitoring manual.

· Includes a determination of which ecological site the point occurs within.

· Includes a GPS point for the center point of the plot.

· Plot Observation

· Photo Points

· Each point will include a photo board with information on site, date, plot, line # and direction.

· A photo will also be taken of the soil pit.

· Line-point Intercept

· Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) will be identified to the sub-species level.

· Vegetation Height

· Gap Intercept (Canopy Gap)

· Soil Stability

· 18 points along three transects, 6 per transect line

· Species Inventory

In addition to the Core AIM Methodologies, the following supplemental data will also be collected at each site:

· Sagebrush shape – Each time a sagebrush is encountered when conducting line-point intercept the shape of the sage-brush will also be recorded (spreading or columnar). This data will also be submitted to BLM using DIMA.

· Forb Diversity as described in Appendix B of the “Sage-Grouse Habitat Assessment Framework” (Stiver et al. 2015 [TR 6710-1]) will be collected at each site. Forb diversity will be measured as frequency every 2 meters for a total of 12 measurements per tape, 36 measurements per plot.

· Communicate potential sage grouse seasonal habitat for each transect location and fill out respective S-Forms provided by HAF guidelines to KFO biologist for habitat assessment determination.

· Annual Plant Production – Within the same ecological site as the AIM point measure annual plant production as described in the “National Range and Pasture Handbook”, Chapter 4 (double sample method). Annual plant production will be expressed as pounds per acre (dry weight).

There is no place in DIMA to record this information, so it will be recorded in an electronic spreadsheet that is compatible with Microsoft Excel.

· Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health – A determination will be made for all 17 indicators as described in the “Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health – Volume 4” technical reference. This information will be entered into DIMA. Data collected from the AIM site will be used to inform the determinations made in conducting the assessment. The contractor will be responsible for determining which ecological site the point is located within, and for obtaining a copy of the Reference Sheet for the ecological site. Expert judgement will be used in making the determinations since the Ecological Site Descriptions for this area are currently preliminary.

· At each site, a single nadir photograph acquired from chest-height and include the photo board described above at the lower right margin of the image as an indicator of scale. This image will utilize sufficient shutter speed to avoid motion blur due to operator movement or vegetation movement and should not include the operator’s shadow.

Data collection will occur using three 25 meter transects arranged in a spoke with a bearing of 0°, 120° and 240°. Orientation of points will be done using magnetic north with no correction for declination. Fifty points will be read on each transect at ½ meter intervals, for a total of 150 points on each plot.

Vegetation height will be read every 5th point (i.e. at 2.5 meters, then again at 5 meters, etc…). All questions regarding monitoring methodology that are not answered by the “Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland, and Savanna Ecosystems – Second Edition” will be brought to the BLM point of contact for resolution.

If private land will be crossed in the process of collecting the data, the contractor will contact the private landowner to acquire permission to cross their land. This will occur before the contractor crosses private land in order to comply with Wyoming state law. The contractor will coordinate with BLM regarding private land access issues.

All data will be provided to the BLM in an electronic format by September 1, 2021. All data that can be stored in DIMA will be provided in that database. All photos will also be provided to the BLM and organized in folders by plot ID. All other data will be provided in an electronic spreadsheet, organized in a way that allows for easy data access and analysis.

BLM FURNISHED SERVICES AND MATERIALS

1. The BLM will provide the spatial data layers to be used as sampling areas for each task, the sampling strata within those Task areas, layers showing surface management/ownership and potential existing motorized routes and any other documents or data referenced herein upon request.

2. The BLM shall, if needed by the Contractor, secure the Contractor’s equipment due to the Contractor absence at no charge. The Government accepts no liability for anything in storage– the contractor accepts all risk.

3. The BLM shall assign a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for the contract.

4. Existing Documents, including previous plans (RMP); all data layers and other documents referenced herein as needed

5. BLM staff (Program Specialist on the IDT) will be made available to provide resource information

6. The BLM will provide for timely review, comment, and turnaround on all administrative draft Contractor deliverables.

CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES, FURNISHED SERVICES AND MATERIALS

1. Contractor will generate sampling locations and provide those coordinates to the COR prior to September 30, 2020.

2. Calibration for all field methods requiring ocular estimation or defining subjective categorization

3. Contractor will provide all staff, field supplies and equipment necessary to conduct sampling including, but not limited to shovels, probes, measuring tapes, soil analysis kits, mobile electronics, flags, plot markers, data forms, witness posts, vehicles, and cameras.

4. Contractor will be responsible for obtaining access permission through private lands wherever applicable

5. All Contractor-supplied geospatial deliverables shall comply with applicable national and federal geographic information standards, particularly those determined by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) as supporting the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

6. Metadata received from the Contractor must be capable of being imported and processed by ArcGIS (v10.4 or newer). Acceptable metadata formats include FGDC Classic & FGDC ESRI.

7. Contractor in facilitation with the BLM will rectify data deficiencies to the extent that it does not require additional field work or significant additional office work or research that is not defined in this SOW.

8. In the event new BLM Guidance or Court decisions after award result in a required change, the BLM may require a change to the contract to comply with these new requirements. This change would be done via a bilateral modification to the contract.

9. End-users shall have access to a description of the accessibility and compatibility features of products in alternate formats or alternate methods upon request, at no additional charge.

10. Support services for products shall accommodate the communication needs of end-users with disabilities.

11. The tests the BLM national communications officials use to ensure ADA compliance and acceptance of PDF files (with the exception of field data forms) are those built into Adobe Acrobat Pro. They can be found in the document's menu bar: Advanced/Accessibility/ Quick Check and Full Check.

12. All deliverables shall reside in the public domain and be in full compliance with the BLM security requirements. All materials, digital files, manuals, guidance, and working documents provided or created under this task must be returned to the BLM upon the completion of this task.

13. All materials, digital files, paper copies, guidance, and working documents provided or created under this task are the property of the BLM and will not be released or used by the contractor for any other purpose.

DELIVERABLES

For each Task, contractor will provide COR with:

1. Annual progress reports detailing field sampling progress and preliminary summary of results; the annual report for 2020 will include, at a minimum, the coordinates for sampling locations that will be used for each Task.

2. All raw field data forms in a single *.pdf document; deliver raw data in *.txt or *.xlsx format; deliver all data with associated spatial location in *.shp or *.gdb format

3. Photographs of sampling locations in geotagged *.jpg format and indexed to sample location identifiers; *.jpg files will include the make, model, and other specifications and settings from the camera used to record the images.

4. Summary statistics in spatial database for visualization of grass height, Artemisia spp. height, shrub shape and percent coverage of the following:

a. native grasses

b. each subspecies of Artemisia tridentata

c. other native woody vegetation

d. annual invasive grasses

e. noxious weeds

f. bare ground

g. plant litter

5. A final report in *.pdf format including tables and graphics summarizing LPI and supplemental data.

6. Completed S-forms for sage-grouse HAF assessments

7. The DIMA and supplemental *.xls file for Task 3.

I. PERFORMANCE PERIOD

Selected contractor must:

1. Submit annual reports by September 30, each year

2. Complete field work for all Tasks by July 31, 2023.

3. Complete and submit all deliverables including the associated reports and delivery of all data products by September 15, 2023.

II. ACCEPTANCE OF WORK

COR will provide written notification to the CO that the final deliverables have been received and are accepted by the government.

III. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The Contractor shall be paid a fixed price for the services performed and will receive incremental payments. To avoid payment delays, please confer with the COR before submitting all invoices. Changes to this schedule must be agreed upon by the CO.

IV. TIME SCHEDULES

Contractor shall submit invoices quarterly beginning August 15, 2020.

V. CONTRACT OFFICER REPRESENTATIVE

The Bureau of Land Management Contract Officer Representative for the administration of this agreement/task order on behalf of the Federal Government is:

Kelly Lamborn Project Coordinator Bureau of Land Management- Kemmerer Field Office 430 N HWY 189 Phone: (307) 828-4500 FAX: (307) 828-4539 Email: klamborn@blm.gov

VI. STIPULATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS REGARDING CONDUCT OF FIELD SAMPLING

1. Operation of motorized vehicles is restricted to well-established routes with obvious multi-year history of significant vehicle traffic

2. Contractor shall be liable for suppression costs for wildfire resulting from any of the Contractors’ activity

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CONTENTS

Quality of Proposal: Proposal that indicates intent to meet conditions outlined in Contractor responsibilities, furnished services, and materials and Deliverables described above

Experience of Key Personnel: Contractor shall submit a one-page resume of all key personnel proposed for this contract. Key personnel shall include project principal investigator or project manager, data collector, in field personnel, and data finisher.

Past Performance: Contractor shall submit a list of clients for past and present similar projects covering the past ten (10) years but no more than 5 in total. Provide: contact name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address. The Government will survey these clients to obtain past performance information (quality, timeliness, cost control, business relationships) related to Contractor’s current and past work.

Methodology: Contractor shall submit their methodology to achieve the work as set forth in this SOW.

EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

Technical Evaluation Factors ( 80 pts):

Proposal that indicates intent and capacity to meet conditions outlined in Contractor responsibilities, furnished services, time frame, and materials and to provide Deliverables described above ( 25 pts) Experience of key personnel ( 25 pts) Past Performance ( 20 pts) Methodology ( 10 pts)

Price ( 20 pts):

Total bid cost for all deliverables over the duration of the performance period (20 pts)

Order of Importance:

X Technical factors are significantly more important than price

· Technical factors are approximately equal to price

· Technical factors are significantly less important than price

Table 1. Sampling strategy for BLM-managed portion of the North Eden fire showing distribution of sampling effort among soil types for 70 sampling locations within the burned area.

Table 2. Sampling strategy for unburned areas of the Christy Canyon allotment showing distribution of 20 sampling locations among soil types.

References BLM. 2010. Record of Decision and Approved Kemmerer Resource Management Plan. May 2010.

Kemmerer Field Office, Kemmerer, WY.(available from https://eplanning.blm.gov)

BLM. 2015. Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments for the Rocky Mountain Region, Including the Greater Sage-Grouse Sub-Regions. September 2015. (available from https://eplanning.blm.gov) Gearhart, A., and K. Launchbaugh. 2015. Photo Monitoring for Ranchers. Pacific Northwest Extension Publication PNW 671. University of Idaho Extension, the Oregon State University Extension Service, Washington State University Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Accessed April 7, 2020. (available from https://www.extension.uidaho.edu/publishing/pdf/PNW/PNW671.pdf) Stiver, S.J., E.T. Rinkes, D.E. Naugle, P.D. Makela, D.A. Nance, and J.W. Karl, eds. 2015. Sage-Grouse Habitat Assessment Framework: A Multiscale Assessment Tool. Technical Reference 6710-1.

Bureau of Land Management and Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Denver, Colorado. (available from https://www.blm.gov/documents/national-office/blm-library/report/sage-grouse-habitat-assessment-framework-multi-scale USDA. 2005. Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland, and Savanna Ecosystems – Second Edition (available from http://www.landscapetoolbox.org/).

USDA. 2003. National Range and Pasture Handbook, Chapter 4. Revision 1, December 2003 (available from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1043061.pdf) Pellant, Mike, Pyke, David A., Shaver, Patrick, and Herrick, Jeffrey E. 2005. Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, Version 4, Technical Reference 1734-6. Bureau of Land Management , Denver, Colorado.(available from https://www.blm.gov/documents/national-office/blm-library/technical-reference/interpreting-indicators-rangeland-health)

Map 1. Vegetation community monitoring areas for each contract task; Task 1 is the North Eden fire, Task 2 is the unburned portion of the Christy Canyon allotment, and Task 3 is the Rock Creek-Silem Ridge fuels treatment area.

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