a._Amendment-07.pdf

Amendment 7

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

1. CONTRACT ID CODE PAGE OF PAGES

2 AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO.

3. EFFECTIVE DATE

07/18/2013

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO

5. PROJECT NO.(IF APPLICABLE)

6. ISSUE BY CODE 7. ADMINISTERED BY (if other than item 6) CODE

Blue Mountain Acquisition Management

72510 Coyote Road

Pendleton, OR 97801

8.NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR(No., street, county, State and ZIP Code)

X 9A. Amend Solicitation No.

AG-04KK-S-13-9000, Malheur N.F. 10 Year

Stewardship Project

X 9B. Dated 6/20/2013

10A. Modification of Contract/Order #

10B. Dated code facility code

11. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION

[ X] The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in the item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers [ ] is extended [X ] is not extended. Offerors must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods: (a) By completing items 8 and 15 and returning 1 copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted, or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE

SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. Accounting and Appropriation Data (if required)

13. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

A. This change order is issued pursuant to; (specify authority):

B. The above numbered Contract/Order is modified to reflect the administrative changes (such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc.) set forth in item 14, pursuant to the authority of FAR 43.103(b)..

C. This supplemental agreement is entered into pursuant to authority of:

D Other: (Specify type of modification and authority):

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor [] is not [X] is required to sign this document and return 1 Original to the issuing office.:

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible

Delete: Original Appraisals from Amendment 4

Replace with: Amendment 7 Appraisals; Establishes new Minimum Acceptable Offer for all Products at

$6.48 per Ton. (4 pg.)

ADD: Information for a public meeting to be held on July 23 rd

2013 about future restoration goals on the Malheur National Forest (2 pg.)

ADD: Questions and answers from the 07/09/2013Pre-proposal conference and field tour. See below.

ADD: Participant list from the 07/09/2013 Pre Proposal Conference (2 pg.)

By signature in Block 15B Contractor releases the Government from all claims relating to this modification. This settlement is complete accord and satisfaction. Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER

Gavin Smith Contracting Officer

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

By (Signature of person authorized to sign)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

By____________________________ (Signature of Contracting Officer)

16C. DATE SIGNED

Standard Form 30 Prescribed by GSA FAR (48CFR) 53.243

Amendment 7

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM PRE PROPOSAL CONFERENCE ON 07/09/2013

1. Q: After the contract is awarded, how does it work financially, logistically etc.?

A: Task orders would be solicited to the awarded contractor at which time the company will have the chance to look over the new contract area and what the restoration activities will be for timber removal and end results given the parameters set forth by the NEPA document with those relevant resource protection measures. Once the contractor has a chance to look at the area and understand the end results the contractor will submit a bid to complete that work.

Timber prices will have already been appraised and made part of the task order and the government will evaluate the elements set forth in the base contract for consistency.

2. Q: We may not have resumes for all employees as they have not been hired. How will this affect the main proposal?

A: The evaluation of benefit to local community prime contractors proposal they will have to submit on what is known. If the future workforce is unknown please state that and identify potential areas from which you intend to recruit and hire the required personnel. But for the first Task Order the contractor will have to submit who they plan on using and merely state that depending on future Task

Orders additional resources would be sought. As future work is identified that will be the time to identify where that workforce will come from and it will be up to the prime contractor to show how they plan on meeting the intent of contract under benefit to the local community. If all available resources have been exhausted from the local areas to fulfill the future requirement then, the negotiation process will be used to make sure the initial contract intent is still met. See Amendment 3

Q3.

3. Q: We need dollars for schools and roads; how do we collect that under this contract?

A: We will have to elevate this question. Right now the stewardship law does not allow us to collect those funds. This approval to collect these funds would have to come from the WO. The 25% fund comes from normal timber sales. In order for this to happen it would have to come from new legislation.

4. Q: What/who made the determination that these funds could not be collected under this contract?

A: This was made more than a decade ago and the “Who” is unknown but a decision of this nature would have to made at the WO level with consultation from

OGC. Ultimately this is a legislative process.

5. Q: Does the stewardship law allow for these types of contracts to essentially replace all timber sale outputs?

A: The law does not prohibit this. Stewardship is a tool, like the timber sale, available to line officers. Both will be used to meet goals and objective in forest plans.

6. Q: Cost proposal in Section B, is this connected to the tech proposal as the business cost?

A: The business cost proposal is part of the overall proposal and should be addressed as the basis of the cost submitted with section C of the technical proposal. These are separate documents and copies as outlined in section L.

Basically the cost/ business proposal are the rationale supporting the prices submitted in the Schedule of Items and the Task Order bid page.

Amendment 7 AG-04KK-S-13-9000

7. Q: Will the products in this contract be more saw logs or biomass in the future?

A: Future task orders will contain both sawtimber and biomass products to be removed. Some will contain more biomass than this task order, others less. See

Amendment 3 Q3.

8. Q: How do we involve local community groups under this contract?

A: The involvement of the local community groups is based their capacity and on what the contractor can utilize based on their ability of involvement. See

Amendment 2 Q4.

9. Q: Reconsider evaluation format, move from adjectival rating to numbering system.

A: See Amendment 5 Q20 and Q21.

10. Q: Do we have to reevaluate subcontractors continually over the life of this contract?

What if we wanted to create our own subcontracting pool?

A: It would be considered and would be handled in the negotiation process. See

Amendment 3 Q3.

11. Q: In the technical approach, benefits to local community elements have percentage ratings. How come the other elements don’t?

A: The other elements in the technical approach are not quantifiable with percentages as in part (c) of the Technical Approach section and therefore we rely on the adjectival rating system. The expectation is to have the contractor propose end results achievements which may vary based on execution and price.

12. Q: Could an outside person, from the business community, help evaluate proposals?

A: See Amendment 5 Q19.

13. Q: If you only receive one proposal, will that company be awarded the contract?

A: Not necessarily. If, through the evaluation process, the only proposal received was found to be unacceptable then no award would be made.

14. Q: Does this forest have NEPA for weed spraying?

A: No, but the expectation is to have NEPA completed in 2014 to allow for weed spraying.

15. Q: How do we know how to bid the schedule of items: service vs. construction?

A: A new schedule has been developed to address these elements. See Amendment 6.

16. Q: Can you define what are Davis-Bacon Wage items in the schedule?

A: See answer above in Q 15.

17. Q: How are you going to pay for additional service work?

A: See Amendment 5 Q10.

18. Q: Two of the four project areas are deficit. How are you going to deal with this?

A: See Amendment 5 Q1.

19. Q: Low chip market, can we negotiate to leave this project at the landing?

A: In Appendix B K-G.4.0.5 alternate removal of included timber there is a way to leave the material decked in the woods.

20. Q: If we decide to deck, will there be a rate adjustment?

A: No, we cannot accept a rate lower than what the minimum rate is stated in the

Task Order.

21. Q: How do we bid future work?

A:See Amendment 5 Q19.

22. Q: Was the timber appraisal done in the first quarter? Could we get another one in the third quarter?

A: We are looking into that.

23. Q: What market price assumptions were used for timber futures?

A: The assumption was that future timber markets were going to decline as of

June 2013 and the appraisal took this into account. We use Western Wood

Products Associations (WWPA) and Logline publications to obtain these projections.

24. Q: This is not the same as a timber sale. It is much greater and more complicated to figure out. How are you saving money?

A: Through the bundling process the intent is to use the same contractor to complete multiple activities to achieve restoration goals in one entry and tailoring subsequent operations to match what the first operations completed.

25. Q: Is this size range of contract proving to be very successful, for example White Mountain and 4-FRI?

A: Those particular contracts are the same general type of contract (IRSC), but are structured much differently in how they can be administered. This contract allows for negotiations for subsequent work and appears to be far more flexible.

26. Q: How will we know what work is being paid by timber value vs. appropriated dollars?

Explain the billing process.

A: See Section G of the solicitation. See amendment 5 Q9.

27. Q: Can we have a rate redetermination on the first quarter?

A: No, the task order will be issued at a Flat Rate with no Market Rate Re-determinations or the ability to have it subject to escalation.

28. Q: Can we wait to remove the product until the very end, and do all the clean-up at the very end, when the markets are better?

A: If you can clearly show that all the work can be done within the contract period it may be considered. See Amendment 3 Q5.

29. Q: Is there any contract burning in this task order?

A: No

30. Q: How are disputes handled under this contract?

A: See the Disputes Clause FAR 52.233-1 in the main solicitation.

31. Q: Fire liability?

A: The agency requires contractors to provide bonding, insurance and fire control mitigation on all contracts. Federal Acquisition Regulations require these same measures, and contractors furnish this as a way to limit their individual and the public’s financial liabilities. The Forest Service proposed a waiver to limit the contractor’s liability to $300,000; however, upon review of the unique aspects of this proposed contract no justification could be found to increase the public’s financial liability due to the terms of this contract. The Forest Service will provide appropriate oversight and review of those contract terms designed to limit contractor liability (i.e., tank truck, after work watchmen etc.). This oversight and review is designed to assist the contractor in successfully preventing an uncontrolled fire. As such, interested parties should take into account when preparing their Technical and Price Proposals that a fire liability waiver will not be in place for the 10 year performance period of this contract. The successful contractor will be responsible for the cost of fire suppression resulting from an operations fire started by the contractor, sub-contractors, and employees.

FIELD VISIT STOP 1 MD UNIT 32

32. Q: How are the trees measured in this first Task Order?

A: Plots were taken across all the DxP units and all trees were that met the DxP prescription on that plot were cruised to come up with the volume estimate. All trees were measured at 4.5 feet above the ground on the high side of the tree to obtain the Diameter at Breast Height

(DBH).

33. Q: Are there going to be clumps of leave trees left?

A: Yes, we will post an amendment to clarify the clumping requirement applicable in Appendix

B. Generally speaking the silvaculture tree requirement will be 1-4 clumps/ac of 3-6 trees greater than 12” DBH within a 20 foot by 20 foot area. If the trees are not there to do this clumping no penalties on performance would be identified.

34. Q: The contract calls for whole tree logging systems, can a contractor propose to use a cut to length to harvest trees?

A: Yes, a contractor could propose to use a different logging system than what is identified in the solicitation as long as the end result can still be met in the prescription and follow up fuels treatments.

35. Q:What is the acceptable range of variance in the basal area retention? Right now in the prescription it calls for an average in the table to be met?

A: The variation in basal area retention is Range 40-70 Basal Area for the 50 BA prescription and 60-80 variation for the 70 BA prescription.

36. Q: What is the current Basal area for this Unit and is it similar to others in the MD contract units and are the size of trees the same?

A: This site is at the 80 to 100 Basal area right now. The rest of the units are similar in current basal areas. As far as size of trees across the project we encourage all contractors to look for themselves. But, generally speaking the diameters across the rest of the area has smaller trees than what is here on this unit.

37. Q: How close will government inspections be when operations are underway for the DxP prescriptions?

A: The goal is to have the contractor do quality control inspections to make sure the DxP prescription is within the tolerances set in Appendix B. The government shall be inspecting as soon as practical to make sure if there are any areas that are not meeting the end results the contractor can adjust accordingly. See Q35.

38. Q: What are the penalties for cutting the wrong trees in this MD area?

A: If there are areas that do not meet the requirements then the contractor would be issued a

Notice of Noncompliance at which point the contractor would have to clearly describe what measures they will take to make sure they can bring their operations back into acceptable standards. Other measures may also be used such as stop work orders to halt operations until these compliance issues can be resolved.

END OF FIELD TOUR ATTENDEES FROM THE FIELD TOUR ELECTED NOT TO

TRAVEL TO STOP 2

END OF PRE PROPOSAL CONFERENCE