2024 Groom Analytics Sole Source Notice_FINAL.pdf

Solicitation Notice Number: S-62900-00009962

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) intends to enter into a sole source contract with Groom Analytics for Estimation of Tree Species Range Shift Rates due to Climate Change using FIA Plot Revisit Data, Phase II

ODF’s research has led it to believe that the Groom Analytics is the only source capable of completing this project using software developed by Jeremy Groom of Groom Analytics. Dr.

Groom has a deep understanding of the unique characteristics of the FIA dataset and the complex data processing that he developed in Phase I of this project. He also has access to restricted USFS data that other contractors do not have.

The US National Forest Inventory and Analysis program (FIA) has completed remeasurement of all inventory plots in Oregon, California, and Washington. Ten years have passed between the first and second measurement of each plot. This immense spatially balanced probability sample of the forests in these three states provides a rare opportunity to measure the effects of climate change on the forests of these three States. Additionally, FIA measurements provide the data to test one of the most important hypotheses about the effects of atmospheric carbon enrichment on climate and vegetation on a large geographic scale.

The intensity, design, and spatial extent of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data sets provide a novel opportunity to begin quantifying the effect of climate change on the rate of growth and mortality on tree species within a 10-year monitoring interval.

Dr. Jeremy Groom of Groom Analytics, LLC, has already developed computer code that accessed and cleaned FIA data for all sample plots in Oregon, California, and Washington. The cleaned data include all plots that were visited by crews between 2001 and 2010 and then re-visited at least ten years later, between 2011 and 2022. Therefore, Dr. Groom has unique experience and is intimately familiar with how FIA data are organized to generate current datasets to which newly available data will be added. Dr. Groom will clean and add FIA plot data collected in 2019 through 2022. Dr. Groom has established a collaborative partnership the U.S.

Forest Service to obtain access to proprietary features of data associated with each FIA plot.

As a contractor Dr. Groom will perform the majority of the data preparation, analysis and manuscript preparation suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Groom will develop the analytical software based on publicly available FIA data and USFS will use that software with the confidential FIA data to obtain the most accurate results. The publicly available FIA plot location data are given randomized latitude and longitude offsets (fuzzed) to protect landowner privacy. FIA analysts have authorization to access the non-fuzzed FIA location data. Therefore, FIA will check data flagged by quality control procedures against restricted-access FIA data sources, run the final analysis code with the non-fuzzed plot coordinate data, and continue to provide the project with periodic assessment and direction.

The contractor will meet periodically with FIA analyststo coordinate activities, review findings, and explore analysis options. Dr. Jeremy Groom of Groom Analytics is the only contractor with the expertise and detailed understanding of the data set that has been prepared, and the requisite analytical pathway essential for finishing the project. He is the only contractor with knowledge and understanding of the first phase of the project and restricted access to necessary information to complete Phase II of this project.

Solicitation Notice Number: S-62900-00009962

ODF intends to enter into this sole source agreement under authority granted in OAR 125-247- 0275.

If another vendor believes they can provide the services described in this notice, they have until April 5, 2024 at 2:00 PM PT to submit a protest. Protests must be emailed to the Single Point of Contact identified below. Please include the OregonBuys Solicitation number in the subject line of the email. If Protester is unable to submit a protest via email, Protester must contact ODF’s Single Point of Contact within a reasonable time period prior to the submission deadline to make arrangements for alternate delivery or an alternate format. ODF is not responsible for incomplete protests that were not correctly addressed to email of Single Point of Contact identified below. Only approved alternative delivery or formats may be accepted.

Oregon Department of Forestry

Procurement Unit, Bldg. E

Attn: Burke Mayer

Email: burke.mayer@odf.oregon.gov

Qualifications: In order to protest this sole source determination, a protestor must meet the following qualifications: Must provide a detailed description of how the protestor could accomplish the proposed work listed above and using the methods and restricted information described above.