A04_Statement_of_Work.pdf

Bureau of Land Management, High Plains District, Wyoming

Field Office: Newcastle

C.1 General and Site-Specific Specifications

Project Name Newcastle Fire defense zone TSI, Wildlife habitat improvement and Fuels reduction FY21

Scope of Contract This contract is for manual thinning, manual piling for timber stand improvement, fuels reduction, and wildlife habitat improvement on approximately 463 acres of Ponderosa pine and Juniper in the NE Wyoming Black hills. Project area is approximately .5 miles N from the city of Newcastle, WY.

Prices for the following bid items should be based on the Description provided below.

Please use this Statement of Work to assist with quotes.

There is no public access to Newcastle Fire defense zone units from city roads. Site visit is scheduled for July 19, 8:00 AM at Newcastle field office,1101 Washington Blvd, Newcastle, WY 82701. If planning on attending site visit, please RSVP to David Morrill at

(307) 746-6617, dmorrill@blm.gov, or to Matthew Spring at (307) 261-7512, mspring@blm.gov.

Access has been given by private landowner for execution of contract. Bidders are highly encouraged to attend the site visit, prior to bid submission and base all quotes on site specific conditions and prescription.

Location Located near Newcastle, WY

Project Area: Bureau of Land Management Public domain lands located in parts of Township 45N Range 61W Sec. 18,19 accessed thru private property and road (gravel) to BLM lands and two tracks from unit to unit.

The work is located on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM), Newcastle Field Office, in Weston County.

Access to the area is limited to private roads and forested roads identified on map/s, or as directed by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR). Access must be when dry or frozen; The Contractor at his expense will repair ruts and road damage caused by the Contractor. The Government assumes no obligation to plow snow or perform special maintenance to keep roads open. All garbage must be removed from the work sites.

Overnight work camp is allowed on BLM managed lands, contractor must approve location with COR and abide by all fire restrictions and/or camping restrictions and follow leave no trace guidelines once camp is vacated

All land ownership boundaries are demarked with blue stripe/pink flagging, and a map and shapefile will be provided to contractor. Contractor must be aware of unit boundaries (internal to property lines) by a Avenza or onyx like app to make sure crew treatment type aligns with SOW and Map.

Also, this area does receive significant snowpack and reduced access from January to April/May maybe limited to tracked UTVs/ or ATV off maintained roads. BLM assumes no responsibility for trespass or access issues under this Statement of work. It is contractor’s responsibility to maintain good relationship with access landowner. Close all gates as requested, and respect private property and access privileges given solely mailto:dmorrill@blm.gov mailto:mspring@blm.gov under this contract for the work herein. If contractor defaults on contracted work due to losing access from not following landowner access privileges this shall not be responsibility of the government.

GIS shapefiles will be provided upon email request to the Contracting Officer.

Performance Period

September 1, 2021 to August 31, 2022.

To protect pupping Northern Long Eared bats, a Time Limiting Stipulation will be imposed: June 1st thru July 31st- No trees may be felled. However, Contractor may continue saw operations on previously cut/fell material and continue to build piles.

Description The project will manually thin, manually pile Ponderosa Pine and juniper thru below mentioned prescription on 463 acres.

The project’s goal is to reduce the risk of stand replacement wildfire and reduce competition of regeneration to improve health of cohort and overall stand resilience/health and improve wildlife habitat goals.

Contractor is expected to utilize Avenza or Georeferenced mapping programs. To utilize georeferenced PDF maps and/or shape files of which government will provide for the bidding and completing of project at request.

For non-property line boundaries, it is expected of contractor to be utilizing Avenza, or other reliable GPS georeferenced maps programs to bid, and complete project to specifications and PDF maps given by government.

If contractor needs any lines reworked or re-delineated, please notify NFO staff as far ahead as possible so fieldwork can be scheduled.

Detailed Unit Information

Unit# Treatment Acres

NFDZ Unit 1 Manual thin-Hand Pile 362

NFDZ Unit 2 Manual thin-Hand Pile 101

Total 463

Prescription Manual Cut, Hand Pile

For all manual cut/pile units; any Boles over 6” diameter will not be piled, instead contractor will delimb and severe portion of bole <6” diameter. All limbs and boles <6” dia. Will be piled. Delimbed Boles >6” diameter will be scattered away from piles.

Only Ponderosa Pine and Juniper are to be cut under this project, no hardwoods or shrubs will be cut.

For All hand Pile units

Cut and pile, all Juniper up to 16” DBH.

Cut, pile all Ponderosa Pine <8” DBH that are within 18’ of the bole (trunk) of a >8” DBH Ponderosa Pine. Where no >8” DBH exists, thin <8” DBH Pine trees to 18’ x 18’ spacing.

**Please be aware that there are small peripheral areas of cut, pile, units where there is not enough material to create piles. Where there are small residual amounts of slash from single trees on open peripheral areas of hand pile units. Contractor may lop and scatter if there is not enough material in a 60’ radius of stump to construct a pile to specifications. In these peripheral areas slash must be under 24” height.

When selecting leave trees for 18’ x 18’ spacing, select the largest, healthiest, best crowns, the trees will have the following characteristics:

• No apparent damage to the main bole.

• Not chlorotic (crown fading).

• Demonstrates good vigor and is disease/bug free, and of good form.

• Has at least 40% percent Live crown ratio.

All standing dead that is <8” shall also be cut and piled to specs mentioned herein for cut/piled units.

Stump heights shall be cut flat (no punji sticks) and no more than 4” height on uphill side.

Hand pile Slash and Piling spec’s

• Pile all cut material.

• Piled material must be cut to 6-foot lengths or less and De-limbed as needed to build compact piles. No voids should be present in piles.

• Piles should be constructed outside dripline (crown extent/edge) of leave trees.

• Pile size minimum 8’x8’-8’ to maximum 20’x20’-12’.

• Piles will be located 20’ from the property lines.

• The piles must be a minimum of 8 feet high by 8 feet wide and constructed in a “haystack” or “tepee” style:

• Start with the larger diameters (4-6 inches). The first 2 or 3 pieces will lay flat and all others should be piled like a haystack or tepee.

• Stems up and needles towards the ground.

• Place smaller material on the pile last (less than 4 inches).

• Piles should be compact with few holes.

• No ends should stick out abruptly from the pile.

• Piles will be dirt free.

For all Slash piling;

Some areas may require exceptions to distance, or minimum and maximum slash pile sizes. The project inspector or COR must pre-approve and give written permission.

Fire Protection

1. The following equipment will be provided and maintained by the Purchaser/Contractor on the contract area year round:

a. Power saw operators shall maintain in their immediate possession a fully charged operable fire extinguisher and a serviceable round pointed #0 shovel or larger. The extinguisher shall be a liquid chemical type of at least 8 ounces (224 grams) capacity or a dry chemical type of at least 1 pound (0.454 kilogram capacity). Fueling of a saw shall be done in an area which has been cleared of all flammable organic material. Saws shall be moved at least 10 feet from the place of fueling before engine is started.

b. Power saws must be equipped with a muffler and screen type spark arrestor in accordance with the standards set forth in the U.S.

Forest Service Spark Arrestor Guide. Power saws used in commercial activities and purchased after December 31, 1980, must also be equipped with a muffler system conforming to the Society of Automotive Engineers Standard J-335b, as set forth in the U.S. Forest Service Spark Arrestor Guide.

c. Exhaust driven turbochargers qualify as efficient spark arresters provided all exhaust gases pass through the turbine impeller. The turbine impeller must always be turning and there may be no exhaust bypass. A straight-mechanical-driven supercharger does not qualify. (1) All internal combustion engines operated on forested lands must be equipped with an approved and effective spark arresting device. (2) Motorbikes, trail cycles, scooters, and other mobile vehicles of this type and all stationary internal combustion engine-driven equipment used on the contract area or over roads leading to the contract area, must be equipped with spark arresting devices listed as approved in the U.S. Forest Service

Spark Arrestor Guide. Spark arresting devices must be plainly marked with the manufacturer's name and model number and must be properly installed and maintained in accordance with the guide. Heavy trucks may have a vertical stack exhaust system and muffler, provided the exhaust stack extends above the cab of the vehicle.

2. Fire watch

a. From June 1st to October 15th a one-hour fire watch is required to be on duty for 1 hour after the last shutdown of power-driven equipment for the day, or during times when NFDR as displayed by Casper Interagency dispatch by zone in which work is conducted is moderate or above.

b. Fire watch must be physically capable and experienced in operating any firefighting tools, or equipment on-site.

c. Furnished with adequate transportation and communications to report a fire.

d. Must be able to visually inspect area work was done during the day.

3. The Purchaser/contractor shall attempt, to the best of its ability and training, to extinguish all fires started by Purchaser, contractor, its agents, or employees.

4. The Purchaser shall promptly report any fires to Casper Interagency Dispatch 1-800-295-9952 or call 911.

5. The Purchaser is responsible for complying with all State, Local, county, and/or Federal fire restrictions, or emergency closures given by authorized officer in the interest of public safety.

6. The Authorized officer and his/her contract administrators or designated BLM employee shall regularly inspect all precautionary fire equipment and required fire protection practices contained within this fire protection section. Failure of purchaser to follow guidelines and procedures contained within will result in an immediate stop work order until Fire protection guidelines and/or required equipment/actions are established onsite and in good working order. The government shall not be held responsible for any delays in contract performance period resulting from stop work orders from non-compliance with fire protection clauses.

Purchaser shall look up fire danger rating on Casper Interagency dispatch webpage daily. The following are guidelines purchaser must follow given danger rating.

https://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/dispatch_centers/r2cpc/ https://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/dispatch_centers/r2cpc/

C.2 Inspection and Acceptance

Thinning Inspection Procedure

The Contracting Officer or designated representative will make periodic inspections. The Contractor or representative is encouraged to observe the inspection and will receive inspection summaries upon request.

Low (L) - Green

Year-round fire precaution equipment required.

Moderate (M) - Blue

Fire watch required as well as year-round fire precaution equipment mentioned above.

High (H) - Yellow

Fire watch required as well as year-round fire precaution equipment mentioned above.

Very High (VH) - Orange

Fire watch required as well as year-round fire precaution equipment mentioned above and-

Extreme (E) - Red

All operations will cease.

Red flag

Purchaser must monitor National weather service fire weather forecasts. In the event a red flag is issued for the zone in which operations are conducted the following restrictions are added to the above requirements. During a red flag no power saws shall be operated such as Feller bunchers, Processors, chainsaws, masticators, mowers or grinders.

Definitions Calendar Days - Every day shown on the calendar, Sundays and holidays included.

Contract Time - The number of calendar days allowed in the contract for completion of the contract work.

Leave Trees - Any tree that is selected or required to be left standing as provided in the specifications.

Over story Tree- Leave/reserve tree Ponderosa pine.

DBH- Diameter at breast height.

Dripline- Extent of over story trees canopy circumference, where rain would drop out of canopy “dripline”.

Slash - Any cut vegetation.

Spacing – The horizontal distance from the trunk of one leave tree to the trunk of the next nearest leave tree.

Measurement and Payment

The acreage was measured on a horizontal plane within the established boundaries.

Basis of Payment - After inspection of completed acreage, the Contracting Officer or designated representative will calculate the pay rate.

The pay rate will be calculated by multiplying the inspection percentage times the contract unit price per acre. When the percent of satisfactory thinning is 90 percent or greater, payment will be made at the contract unit price.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CONTENTS

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF KEY PERSONNEL: Offerors shall submit a one-page resume of all key personnel who shall be onsite proposed for this contract.

PAST PERFORMANCE: Offerors shall submit a list of clients for past and present similar projects covering the past three (3) years. Provide: contact name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address. Please do not provide more than 10 contacts. The Government will survey these clients to obtain past performance information (quality, timeliness, cost control, business relationships) related to Offeror’s current and past work.

QUALITY CONTROL PLAN: Offerors shall submit their Quality Control Plan showing how they intend to meet Government performance standards for each task and subtask associated with this contract.

PRICE

23. EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

TECHNICAL EVALUATION FACTORS

Qualifications and Experience of Key Personnel

Past performance

Quality Control Plan

Price/Cost

ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

Technical factors, when combined, are considered:

Significantly more important than price

X Approximately equal to price

Significantly less important than price

362Acres

101Acres

MORRISSEY RD KENWOOD DR

COUNTY SHOP RD

£¤16

£¤85

US-16

US-85

Source: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community, U.S. Forest Service Enterprise Map Services Program

Legend Two tracks

Unit Name NFDZ Unit 1 NFDZ Unit 2

0 0.45 0.9 1.35 1.80.225 Miles ¯

2021 Newcastle Fire Defense Zone Hand thinning and piling

-104 13.7332 43 52.2830 Map center Coordinates DDM