c.Appendix A-specs.docx

Appendix A- Work Items

A.1 ServiceWork Items

All treatment units will be marked with boundary tags with unit name, number, and plastic ribbon.

Precommercial Thinning/Whip Felling The contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supervision, transportation, operating supplies, inspections, and incidentals in order to accomplish stand density management through the process of cutting down trees by hand to meet the spacing requirements in the Sundry Stewardship contract area. The spacing requirements for each unit are described on the attached Detailed Unit Information Sheet(s). Use of motorized equipment other than hand-held equipment such as power saws and brush cutters will not be permitted off roads in the project area without approval of the Contracting Officer. Slash shall be treated so that any remaining slash meets the requirements as described in the specific tasks section and Detailed Unit Information Sheet(s).

Within the designated goshawk PFFA road construction, timber falling, yarding or hauling may not be conducted within Units 22C, 22F, and 26A from April 1 to August 30. The seasonal restriction may be lifted for a given year when surveys determine nesting failure or fledging of young prior to August 30.

Selection of Leave Trees The technical specifications are based on the overall composition and condition of the stand, and are intended to be guidelines for achieving a high quality final product in a professional manner. Contractor is expected to use silvicultural knowledge to identify and adjust to variations within the stand.

A. Contractor shall always leave the following trees and disregard them for spacing purposes:

1. Leave all live conifer trees that are shorter than 18 inches in height, unless otherwise specified.

2. Leave all trees exhibiting visible wildlife denning or nesting use. Should an active hawk, eagle, or pilleated woodpecker nest be located, work shall be discontinued within 500 feet of the nest-tree until the CO has been notified and has authorized resumption of work.

3. Leave all shrubs and non-coniferous tree species, except when cutting is necessary to access a coniferous cut tree.

4. Leave all dead trees, except as indicated on the Detailed Unit Information sheet.

5. Leave all trees with fencing attached.

6. Buffers for non-commercial thinning (NCT) treatments should have a minimum of a 25 foot no treatment buffer on all fish bearing streams or stream channels with direct connection. The buffer is measured from the edge of the valley floor-channel break in slope. There should be no ground-based machines within 25 feet of the floodplain and no NCT within 10 feet of the intermittent channels. This is a minimum, but can be increased at site.

B. Contractor shall leave all conifers that are larger than the maximum cut DBH specified on the Detailed Unit Information sheet, and shall include these trees for spacing purposes.

C. Contractor shall select additional leave-trees, from those live conifers at least 18 inches tall and up to the maximum cut DBH, to achieve average spacing as specified in the Detailed Unit Information sheet.

1. Leave-trees shall be the healthiest, most vigorous, and best-formed trees of the preferred species in the stand, as evidenced by the tallest height, largest crowns and crown ratios, straightest stems, and the least amount of damage or disease.

2. The leave-tree spacing is an average and shall be varied up to 25 percent (wider or tighter) to leave the most desirable trees. It is more important to leave the best trees, than to have uniform spacing. Averaged over the stand, leave tree spacing shall not be materially increased or decreased from what is specified in the Detailed Unit Information sheet.

3. Leave-trees shall be selected within the order of species preference as listed on the Detailed Unit Information sheet. This order of preference only applies if the trees are free of damage or defect. In most cases tree vigor will help you determine which trees will best inhabit the site.

4. Where undamaged trees are not available, select leave-trees with the least amount of damage.

5. Species preference compensates somewhat for minor differences in size or quality. For example, a smaller but otherwise equal quality ponderosa pine which is 2/3 the height of a Douglas-fir should be left rather than the Douglas-fir. A western larch with minor bole damage would be preferred over an undamaged grand fir.

D. Exceptions

1. When live ponderosa pine or western larch with diameters over 21 inch DBH are encountered, cut all live and dead trees less than the maximum cut DBH that are within 30 feet of these 21+ DBH trees. Check the Detailed Unit Information sheet for units where this is required.

2. When quaking aspen are encountered, the minimum spacing shall be 50 feet off any size of these trees. All live trees under the maximum DBH shall be felled. Check Detailed Unit Information sheets for units for where this is required.

3. All grand fir, juniper, and sub alpine fir under the maximum DBH listed on the detailed unit information sheet shall be felled irregardless of spacing.

Cutting of Trees

1. Contractor shall exercise extreme care to prevent damage to leave-trees. If the best leave-tree is accidentally cut or damaged, Contractor shall leave a substitute tree. Contractor shall select as the substitute tree, the most healthy, vigorous, and largest tree of a preferred species available within 8 feet of the cut or damaged tree. Substitution will only be an acceptable remedy if encountered infrequently. If frequent, the inspection will indicate deficient trees.

1. Contractor shall exercise extreme care to prevent damage to all physical improvements (fences, telephone lines, established land corners, buildings, ditches, etc.) on the contract area. Contractor shall be liable for damage to physical improvements and shall make immediate repairs to damaged physical improvements.

1. Trees shall be completely severed from the stump. Cutting shall be below the lowest live limb, except when prevented by obstacles. Stump height shall not exceed 8 inches above ground level or 4 inches above obstacles. All live limbs below the cutting point shall be removed from the bole.

Slash Treatment (Including Handpiling and Grapple Piling)

A. Check Detailed Unit Information sheet for unit specific slash treatment (such as lopping along private land boundaries or open roads.) No additional payment will be made for slash treatment. The contractor shall not start thinning a new unit until the slash work on the previously thinned unit is completed.

B. No thinning slash shall be left suspended by, or lean against, a leave tree; whether it is dead or alive.

C. Thinning slash shall be pulled back from the following areas:

1. Roads - No slash shall be left within 5 feet of the outside edge of the road shoulders. In areas with cut and fill construction, this distance shall be measured from 5 feet beyond the top of the bank to 5 feet beyond the point where the shoulder meets the fill slope. (i.e., hinge point of road shoulder and fill slope.) All open roads shall be kept free of thinning slash.

2. Developed recreation sites/trails - No slash shall be left in established recreation sites or trails.

3. Cultural Resource Sites - The Contractor shall notify the CO of any suspected cultural resource sites prior to working the area. If slash is felled onto a cultural resource site, the Contractor shall discontinue work in the general area until the CO has been notified.

4. All Other Improvements - No slash shall be left within 10 feet of any physical improvement.

5. Private Land - See Detailed Unit Information sheet.

6. Fire Lines - No thinning slash shall be left in existing fire lines as designated on contract map.

7. Unit boundaries.

8. Streams, ponds, bogs, or wallows.

D. Additional Slash Treatment Units may require all thinning slash to be treated so that the depth and length of the slash does not exceed certain parameters as listed on the Detailed Unit Information sheet.

Handpiling To reduce the threat of catastrophic wild fire, this project will reduce fuel loading within selected pre-commercially thinned area. Fuel shall be hand piled to reduce fuel loadings. A 4-foot by 4-foot piece of paper or plastic shall cover a portion of the pile to facilitate burning. The contractor shall provide all paper or plastic required for piles. Pile paper shall be 33# weight and treated on one side. Plastic shall be 4 mil or less. Contractor shall notify the COR when pay items are complete and ready for inspection prior to moving out of the general area.

Material to be treated is composed of timber litter, selected standing dead trees 9 inches dbh or less, and pre-commercial thinning debris from this thinning project. This material is identified as fuel model 12 as defined by the USDA Forest Service General Technical Report, PNW-52 1976.

Fuel amounts vary but are estimated at 0 to 3 feet in depth for a total of 5-30 tons/acre. It may be necessary to transport slash up to a 50 feet radius of pile(s) to meet minimum pile size requirements.

Any pile not meeting contract requirements shall be re-piled at the Contractor’s expense.

Grapple Piling The expected result of this project is to reduce fuel loading by mechanically piling; 1) slash created by commercial harvest and pre-commercially thinned units and 2) natural build up of woody debris on the forest floor. The end result of activities performed under this contract would produce areas where a wildfire (should it occur) could be contained quickly, provide greater safety for firefighters, and produce less damage to natural resources.

Material will be grapple piled to allow for future burning of that material.

To produce the Desired Outcome of this contract for grapple piling:

The contractor shall pile at least 80% material from 1 to 9 inches in diameter and over 6’ in length. Some bucking of logs may be required.

Pile Requirements

1. Piles shall be constructed in such a manner as to combust completely, contain fire within the pile perimeter, and do minimal damage to residual trees.

2. At least 75% of tree boles (trunks) and large diameter limbs should be aligned parallel with each other to aid in consumption when piles are burned.

3. Pile height shall be 5 feet minimum and 15 feet maximum’

4. Pile diameter shall not exceed 20 feet or twice the height of the pile. ( For example: 5’ tall pile would be 10’ or less in diameter)

5. Nothing shall protrude more than 5 feet outside of the perimeter of a pile.

6. Piles shall not be placed on large or tall stumps, down logs greater than 12 inches (small end diameter), or large rocks.

7. Piles shall not be constructed in roads, ditches, meadows, grass “scablands” or channel bottoms.

8. Piles shall contain minimal amounts of soil or rocks.

9. Pull berms back and pile some slash over the soil surface to control erosion on any turned area where bare soil is exposed (10’ x 10’).

Contractor shall notify the COR when pay items are complete and ready for inspection prior to moving out of the general area. Any unit not meeting contract requirements shall be reworked at the Contractor’s expense.

Slash treatment operations shall not begin until soil moisture levels are below forest plan standards and guides and will be suspended if soil moisture levels subsequently exceed standards and guides due to adverse or unusual weather. Contractor shall limit travel to existing skid roads whenever possible.

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS

Equipment shall be a track mounted excavator that does not exceed ground pressure of 5.5 PSI with track length not to exceed 13 feet. Equipment shall have an attachment arm capable of swinging 360 degrees with a reach of 25 feet and equipped with a thumb and rake grapple for grapple piling. Track length shall not exceed 13 feet in order to keep soil displacement at a minimum.

Equipment specifications are consistent with direction from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation for all the applicable Environmental Assessments.

CONTRACTOR’S QUALITY CONTROL PLAN

Contractor shall provide a quality assurance plan at the post-award conference. This plan shall describe the Contractor’s method (self-inspection procedures) for ensuring that all work will meet the Performance Work Statement.

MEASUREMENT AND PAYMENT

GOVERNMENT’S QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN

The Government will conduct visual inspections of each unit to determine work quality. Each pay item will be verified separately and inspection results on one pay item will not be averaged with those of the other pay items.

Thinning The Government will conduct inspections of each unit to determine work quality. Initial inspections will consist of a 100 percent visual inspection and will be based on adherence to the specific tasks listed in the contract. The Government will also install a series of circular plots. Plots will be randomly located throughout each sub-item to obtain a representative sample of the work. Plot size is 1/20th of an acre.

The following data will be collected on each plot:

1. Number of deficient trees (see definitions)

1. Number of excess trees

The following deficiencies will be considered excess trees for determining performance quality:

Quality below 90% will be deducted from payment (See Payment clause). When inspection results are below 90 percent, and excess trees constitute any part of the deficiency, payment will not be made until the deficiency has been corrected by the Contractor. Reinspections, after rework, will be made in the same manner as the first inspection, but on different plot lines. The Contractor shall pay for inspections necessitated by the rework.

Precommercial thinning/Whip Felling quality percentages will be determined by:

No. of deficient trees + No. of excess trees x 100 = Performance Quality % No. of leave trees that should have been left

Reinspection of Thinning Upon Contractor Request

If original inspection results are unacceptable to Contractor and a second inspection is requested without rework, the same inspection procedure will be used following a different plotline. If the second inspection shows less than 5 percent variance from the first inspection, the Contractor shall pay the cost of the second inspection, and results of the second inspection will be used in determining payment. Reinspection requests shall be in writing and submitted within three (3) calendar days of the original inspection notification.

Handpiling The Government will conduct visual inspections to determine work quality. Each pay item will be verified separately and inspection results on one pay item will not be averaged with those of the other pay items. Determination of the acceptability of the work performed will be based on these verification inspections and will be considered conclusive. An inspection will be made and the Contractor will be notified within 24 hours of any deficiencies, rework or additional work requirements. The Government will conduct inspections, on a pay item basis, in accordance with the following quality assurance surveillance plan. All piles found unacceptable, shall be re-worked by the Contractor. Handpiling will be considered unacceptable if any of the following conditions are found:

1) Remaining un-piled slash is less than 50 feet from the nearest pile or consists of more slash than is necessary to make its own pile.

2) Piles are less than 10 feet apart.

3) Piles are located on or against stumps, logs, or rocks larger than 2 foot in diameter.

4) Piles are placed closer than 10 feet from the bole of any standing tree or snag.

5) Piles are placed on open roads or trails.

6) Piles are placed within 10 feet of ditches or channel bottoms.

7) Piles are placed within 10 feet of treatment unit boundary or any improvement such as road signs, fences etc.

8) Piles are larger than 6 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 8 feet long, or smaller than 4 feet tall, 5 feet wide and 5 feet long.

9) Piles do not contain a core of kindling consisting of at least one cubic foot woody material not larger than 1-inch diameter as a part of the bottom pile layer.

10) All piled material is not horizontal and aligned parallel together tightly. Trimming of material may be required to achieve a compact, stable pile.

11) Water proof paper is not placed in pile not less than 3 feet from pile bottom.

12) Materials treated protrude more than 1 foot beyond the piles general contour. If/when this occurs piles shall be trimmed so protruding material is less than 1 foot beyond piles general contour.

Grapple Piling If the work quality is determined to be better than 90 percent, payment will be made at 100 percent of unit price, less any deductions. In the event visual inspection indicates that work quality is less than 90 percent and the operator will not rework the unit voluntarily then an inspection of the unit will be done on a series of 1/20-acre plots randomly placed and covering at least a 1 percent sample of the unit. Each plot will be examined to determine if the intent of the contract has been met. Plots will be determined to be either, in, or not in, compliance with the conditions listed below.

The grapple piling quality percentages will be determined by:

Total # of Plots Taken

Inspection for residual tree damage will be accomplished by visual inspection of each unit. In the event visual inspection finds excessive damage, the following plot inspection procedure will be performed:

The inspections will be made on a series of plots. Plots will be located on plot lines at predetermined intervals, as required to randomly sample at least 1 percent of each unit. The plots will be inspected and information recorded as indicated below.

Total number of residual trees

Damage in excess of 10 percent will be deducted from payment using current market rates for timber.

Units will be considered unacceptable if any of the following conditions are found:

1) Piles containing material exceeding 12 inches in diameter and exceeding 16 feet in length

2) Piles are less than 10 feet apart or not dispersed evenly throughout the treatment unit.

3) Piles are located on or against stumps, logs, or rocks larger than 2 foot in diameter.

4) Piles are placed closer than 10 feet from the bole of any standing tree or snag.

5) Piles are placed within 10 feet of ditches or channel bottoms.

6) Piles are placed within or on any improvement such as a road, signs, fences etc.

7) Piles contain soil or are not tightly compacted.

8) Piles do not contain a variety of slash sizes.

9) Tree boles (trunks) and large diameter limbs are not aligned parrellel to each other in the majority (75%) of the pile.

10) Pile sizes are not within the specifications listed above for height or diameter.

Sundry Stewardship, Appendix A Page 11 of 11

A.2 Detailed Information Sheet –

Sundry Stewardship Precommercial Thinning, Whip Felling, & Slash Treatment

Of Leave Trees

Max.

Cut

DBH

Clearing Around 21+dbh Trees

Cutting all Dead trees Less than 9 dbh & >6ft tall

Clearing Around Aspen

Slash Treatment

Remarks

Sundry 22

Sundry 22A

Species preference- Western Larch, Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, Lodgepole pine.

No Grand fir, Juniper, or Subalpine fir under the maximum cut DBH are to remain.

Sundry unit boundaries are designated with pink flagging and yellow plastic tags. Sundry harvest unit boundaries are designated with blue flagging, pink paper tags, & orange paint.

Slash Treatment (described in column 8) Handpile- All slash existing and created less than the maximum cut diameter shall be limbed and bucked to a maximum length of 4 feet.

Grapple- Existing and created slash less than the maximum cut diameter shall be bucked to a maximum length of 8 feet.

Incidental- Lopping and bucking of created slash to reduce slash depth to less than 18 inches within 100 feet of open roads and property boundaries Lop for depth- Existing and created slash shall be lopped to a depth of less than 18 inches and tree boles bucked into 10 foot or less lengths.