24ISD003_Addendum__1.pdf

Notice to Prospective Proposers

Request for Proposals (RFP) No.

“California Shrubland Carbon Sampling Framework”

ADDENDUM NO. 1

January 22, 2025

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is issuing this Addendum No. 1 to post Questions and Answers to the RFP.

All other information in the RFP shall remain the same.

This addendum, along with the RFP is published online in the California State Contracts Register at https://caleprocure.ca.gov/pages/index.aspx. To ensure receipt of any addenda that may be issued, interested parties are encouraged to register online at https://caleprocure.ca.gov. Any questions are to be addressed to the contact listed below:

Contact: Sakinah Carter Phone: (279) 208-7804 Email: S @arb.ca.gov

Thank you.

RFP 24ISD003

Vendor Q&A

Question #1: Is UC Davis eligible to submit a proposal to this announcement?

Answer #1: UCD is eligible to submit a proposal.

Question #2: Are there guidelines on the number of pages for the technical and other sections of the proposal?

Answer #2: There is no limit to the number of pages per section. Please reference the directions provided in the RFP.

Question #3: What is the expected timeline and budget for plot remeasurement?

Answer #3: It is not expected that plots will be remeasured within this contract. There are two primary reasons for this. First, we do not expect major carbon pools will change over the contract’s timeline enough to require remeasurement. Second, the plot-level sampling design should, as much as possible, represent the range of existing climate, edaphic conditions, and disturbance regimes through the sampled locations. As such, there is no budget or timeline for remeasurement of plots within this contract.

Plot measurement should take place between eight months following project onset (when copies of permits and/or access agreements should be provided to CARB) and twenty-one months after project onset (when the final plot-level data is requested). We expect sampling will comprise a large portion of the contract budget when accounting for required travel, personnel, equipment, and the extent of needed sampling to represent the variety of California’s shrublands.

Question #4: There is a TACPA preference about identified worksites being in California; how does this apply to a remote only California company?

Answer #4:

Cites shall be in shrublands within California’s state borders.

Question #5: We understand that there will be a final score without any notes; is there an opportunity to receive additional feedback once the awards are over?

Answer #5:

If requested, non-awarded respondents can request a discussion on feedback contingent upon program availability.

Question #6: We understand that the state does not negotiate rates or costs of any proposal submitted;

can we indicate openness to revising our rates and estimates?

Answer #6: The State of California solicitation policy prohibits any changes outside the provisions illustrated in the RFP. Once award is granted, the rate, term and provisions are final.

Question #7: We understand that not following any of the draft agreement or terms & conditions of this proposal is cause for rejection; that being said, upon our review of those documents, we wanted to ask:

would the state be open to adding language around open-source work regarding the deliverables?

Answer #7:

Data collected through this project will be the property of CARB. CARB is committed to open data, however, the extent to which, and manner in which, data is open-source will be determined at CARB’s discretion after contract completion. The data can be used by the contractors for scientific publications and CARB will work with the contractors to discuss how this data may be used for scientific publications by the contractors.

Question #8: Is there existing field data that can be incorporated, or will all data collection be bespoke for this effort?

Answer #8: CARB will provide the existing data for shrublands from the LANDFIRE-C model. This data includes literature-derived allometric equations scaled to plot-level extents, as described in detail by Gonzalez et al 2015. For more information, please refer to CARB’s Natural and Working Lands Carbon Inventory Webpage. This webpage includes the referenced literature and additional technical information on LANDFIRE-C. Additionally, as part of this contract, an initial literature review will be conducted to integrate existing, published, field data.

Gonzalez, P., Battles, J. J., Collins, B. M., Robards, T., & Saah, D. S. (2015). Aboveground live carbon stock changes of California wildland ecosystems, 2001–2010. Forest Ecology and Management, 348, 68-77.

However, even though these literature values are available, the methods used and metrics collected in this contract will be different as this will be tailored to incorporating plot level data to remotely sensed data for landscape to statewide scale estimates of shrubland carbon.