S150022-QA-mtgNotes-v2.docx

AG-67T0-S-15-0022 BKF Botany IDIQ Questions/Answers Pre-proposal Teleconference was held May 26, 2015 at 11:00.00 MDT Attendees: Brenda Anderson, CO – USFS, Chelsea Monks, Technical Expert/COR – USFS; Paul Hansen, Ecological Solutions Group LLC, Rachel MK Headley, Cobblestone Science; Dr. Wayne Schennum.

General Information:

· This is a base year (Date of Award through March 31, 2016) with four – one year options – Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. It is also a performance based service contract – your performance will determine the amount paid on your invoices.

· Review of Schedule B – The master price lists is to be the maximum amount that can be charged over the Base or Option year for that work. This maximum price is still competitive. The three task orders issued with the solicitation are actual task order and should be priced lower than your maximum pricing. For the master contract, prices locations, types, and acres are unknown; the task orders identify the locations, types, and acres are known, thus the uncertainty is removed – price accordingly.

Question) Where can we find these forms?

Answer) The forms and specifications can be found at www.fbo.gov by searching for the solicitation number AG-67T0-S-15-0022.

Question) If we cannot meet the requested date can we set new dates?

Answer 1) See the task order quote sheet – note that you can propose alternate dates in your quote in the comment sections. The Government’s requested dates are found on the Supplemental Specifications of the Task Orders found in Section J (Both the quote sheet and supplemental specifications form the task order. Just these documents are what will be sent for new task orders to those companies being awarded a Master IDIQ Contract under this program.)

Answer 2) Please list in the comment field the number of task orders you can complete in the timeframe. You can propose alternate completion dates if needed. Example: Can complete TO 01-2015 – South Beaver Tail with in requested dates. If awarded TO 02-2015-Odakota would need to extend the field season to September 15, 2015. Could not perform all three TOs during the identified field season. Would need to move TO 03-2015 Little Bear to next field season in order to complete.

· Refer to section G.1 of the master solicitation for information on how task orders will be issued. The majority of the task orders will be issued competitively; the Government reserves the right to unilaterally award a Task Order to a company non-competitively.

· The master solicitation describes the type of work that can be ordered under this contract. Individual Task Orders are more specific to the type of work required for the task.

Question) What if the time needs to be extended for field work beyond March?

Answer) there are two different timing components under the IDIQ A) The Master IDIQ is dealing with pricing timeframes of when a task order can be issued and what maximum price is applied. Example: a Task Order issued February 15, 2016 to begin work March 1, 2016 would be issued under the pricing for the base contract period. This is the time period the Government can issue a task order and the Contractor has to accept work under the contact.

If exercised, Option year One (April 1, 2016 through March 31, 2017 – would normally be when task orders would be issued for field season 2016) B) Task Order timing is the performance period for when the task order is to be completed. In the Example above, the field work begins March 1 but does not end until July 15, 2016.

Task orders are normally issued for just the field season of the base or option year of the contract. They will normally not cross into the next field season.

Question) When bidding our maximum prices, are we to include COLA into our bid?

Answer) when proposing your maximum prices, you need to take into consideration any increases in your costs over the life of the contract. Remember these maximum prices are also competitive and will be part of the evaluation process. Anticipate when task orders come out that companies will propose accordingly based on the current market costs.

Question) When is the bid due?

Answer) June 18, 2015 at 1600 MDT. – You can fax or email your quote to the information posted in the solicitation in Section L. Note if your email is over 8 MB it might not come through. If submitting email quote, you will receive an acknowledgement that it has been received. I will not review submittals to ensure you have submitted everything – you need to tell me how many documents submitting.

Question) Is bonding required?

Answer) No, bonding is not required under our service contracts.

· When preparing your proposal please refer to Sections L, M, and K for instructions on how to prepare your proposal. Reviewed these sections. Submit the two volumes identified in Section L as your proposal. Again review these sections to ensure you have submitted everything required with your proposal.

· Discussed the minimum guarantee with a ceiling price of the contract not to exceed the ceiling price of $500,000.00. Individual task orders will not be issued for less than $3,000 or over 50,000 acres; nor a combination of task orders within 60 calendar days of 80,000 acres – See clause 52.216-19 page 46.

Question) Will a list of the participants be sent out?

Answer) Attendees will be listed and posted as part of the notes for today’s teleconference.

Question) Will the answers to the written questions be posted?

Answer) Yes, an amendment will be coming out with the few changes and the question/answers will be attached to the amendment.

Question) Will the final report and all the mapping need to be hard copy?

Answer) See Section 5.1.3.1.2 The reports may be submitted electronically but be able to be printed out hard copy.

· Any other questions need to be submitted to me by Close of Business (1600 MDT) today May 26th.

Written Questions:

1. Within each of the four Ranger Districts, approximately how much acreage needs to be covered by the botanical survey? Clarified: what are the number of acres on each task order?

Response: Please see Sections B (pages7-10) and J (pages 126-132) for the full requirement of the task order which identifies the survey type and acres associated with each task order.

2. Are specific areas within each Ranger District scheduled for botanical surveys, perhaps based on existing management plans? Clarification: Are there maps identifying the specific sites?

Response: Yes, specific areas are scheduled based on the Forest’s 5-year-plan; however these areas change frequently therefore the entire Forest has the potential for survey. Right now the Bearlodge estimates the area encompassing the north Bearlodge Mountains and part of the Addition Country, Mystic estimates survey need in the Deerfield and Odakota areas, the Hell Canyon estimates needs in the western half of the District, and the Northern Hills estimates Hop Creek, Rubicon, and West Rim areas. These areas are just a best guess at this time and could change.

Clarification Response: Yes, See section J (pages 126-132) for both the vicinity map and site specific maps for each task order.

3. In addition to botanical inventories, what other information is to be collected – natural community types and the quality of their vegetation, natural community maps using GPS, relative abundance of plant species recorded, endangered and threatened species (both federal and state) present and their locations?

Response: Please see the forms and field descriptions provided in the solicitation (Exhibits 6-15).

4. What information is to be included in a final report in addition to the data – data analysis, potential impacts of land uses permitted, and management recommendations (e.g. control of exotics)?

Response: Please see the solicitation Section 5.1.3.

5. Are photographs of communities and rare species to be taken?

Response: Yes. Please see the solicitation Sections 5.2.1.2, 5.3.1.3, 5.4.1.3, 5.5.1.4, and 5.6.1.4.

6. Are voucher specimens to be collected and pressed as records of rare plants?

Response: Yes. Please see the solicitation Sections 5.2.1.4., 5.3.1.2, 5.5.1.2, and 5.6.1.2.

7. When the proposal first came out (late Thursday night of May 14), it stated that the “Notice Type” was a pre-solicitation. However, sometime during the week of May 18-22, the “Notice Type” was changed to a solicitation. We downloaded the accompanying document of the pre-solicitation notice type on Friday (May and started reviewing it. Were any changes made to the accompanying document from the pre-solicitation to the formal solicitation?

Response: The pre-solicitation notice and solicitation were both posted on May 14th. The system may have taken a while to update the status from pre-solicitation to solicitation phase. No changes were made to any of the documents.

8. Offer Due Date box in upper right corner (page 1): The Offer Due Date is June 18, 2015 (1600 MDT). However, the following is stated for Task Order 01 (page 7), Task Order 02 (page 9), and Task Order 03 (page 10): “Request for Quotation (EmailRFQ) cover sheet is due to the CO by Thursday June 11, 2015 at 4:00 p.m.” Please clarify the due date.

Response: The due date is June 18, 2015 at 1600 MDT. The dates on the task order should reflect the same date. See amendment one – dates are removed and refer to response date of solicitation is added.

9. Section B.2 (page 2): This section states that more than one contract may result from this solicitation, but does not indicate how many total will be awarded. How many contractors will be on the IDIQ list?

Response: The number of awards will depend upon several factors: number of acceptable proposals received, capability and capacity of proposers, to allow task orders to be issued competitively.

10. Section B.3 (page 7 - Task Order 01; page 8 - Task Order 02; page 10 - Task Order 03). No dates are given for the drafts or final reports for the official bid on these Task Orders. However, on pages 123, 126, and 130 draft and final report dates were given. Were the dates inadvertently left off the official bid portion of the solicitation of page 7, page 8, and page 10?

Response: Pages 7, 8, and 10 are the quote (bid) pages, the supplemental pages of the task orders on pages 123, 126, and 130 complete the task order. Listing the dates on both documents could create issues if the dates were changed on one document and not the other.

11. Section 5.1.1.1 (page 16): The work plans require a map of the general areas where high or moderate probability plant habitats are prior to field work. Can these pre-work map delineations be altered once the contractor is in the field?(Additional Question - was not clearly addressed during the pre-proposal telephone conference call.) (During the pre-proposal conference call, it was not addressed whether these pre-work map delineation can be altered once in the field? For example what happens if while going to an area we encounter a target species but it was not in the pre-mapped area, are we to include it or just ignore it? If we include it we will have to re-draw the boundary area for the map units.)

Response: Yes. The purpose of the pre-work map is to ensure the Contractor has an accurate impression of where such habitat may be located. These areas may be modified in the field if habitat conditions turn out to be different than estimated in pre-field work. Any target species located should have the appropriate forms completed. The purpose of the pre-work map is to ensure that the Contractor is using the same habitat component assumptions as the Forest Service. It is a guide and not binding; however if, once in the field, the Contractor realizes that the areas presented in the pre-work map are drastically different (i.e. less than 75% accurate), the Contractor should contact the COR.

12. Section 5.1.1.2.2 (page 17): This section requires a list of all employees/personnel working on the contract, identifying each by their Occupational Code/ Job Title for work as it applies to this contract under the applicable Service Contract Act wage rate. Are our GSA job titles and rates acceptable for this requirement?

Response: The information requested here ties directly to the Department of Labor Service Contract Act wage rates and is tied to the DOL occupational code/job titles – this is to be used for labor checks to ensure that employees are being paid the required “minimum” wage for work under this contract. It is the contractor’s responsibility to classify their employees. The Government will review to ensure that employees are classified correctly and paid correctly in accordance with the pertinent wage determination for the project. The GSA job titles and rates are not applicable to this requirement.

13. Sections 5.2.1 (page 19), 5.3.1 (page 21,) 5.4.1 (page 22), 5.5.1 (page 23), and 5.6.1 (page 24): How many survey trips are required for Botanical Field Surveys, Botanical Floristic Surveys, Plant Monitoring Surveys, Bryophyte Surveys, and Lichen Surveys?

Response: The only survey type that requires multiple trips is the Botanical Floristic Survey (5.3.1.1). This is usually three trips (early, middle, and late season), but a different number of required trips could be specified in the Task Order. The other survey types require only as many trips as the Contractor deems necessary to be confident of an accurate description of the area and rare plants present (at least one trip).

14. Section 5.2.1.4 (page 19): Upon award of a Task Order, will the successful contractor be given a list of previously identified Target Species known to occur within the project area, along with known locations? Have known Target Species locations been verified by USFS personnel within the past year? (This is important with herbaceous vegetation that may be readily eliminated from a site due to drought, fire, human disturbance, etc.)

Response: No. The location and identification of known populations will be used as a Quality Assurance check. Please see the Performance Requirements summary table in Section 7 of the solicitation. Target Species locations are visited on a regular basis.

15. Section 5.2.1.4 (page 19): Will there be allowance for not observing a Target Species if the species is not expressed vegetatively, either because the field survey occurs before or after a species has expressed vegetatively, or due to other environmental site conditions? For example, many herbaceous species grow at different times of the growing season resulting in dried up specimens that are difficult (if not impossible) to identify at various times of the growing season. In addition, some herbaceous plants may not have started their growth at the time of the survey. If the contractor is being evaluated on plants that have either not grown yet, or have grown much earlier in the year and are now senescent, then the contractor will need to visit the site numerous times during the growing season and would need to bid accordingly.

Response: Allowances for species that are not visible during the time of survey will be made for the Botanical Field Survey; however the timing of the survey should be such that most of the target species will be visible (i.e. not so early that few species are visible or so late that most species have senesced for the year). Allowances will also be made for the bryophyte and lichen surveys if the survey occurs at a time when some species do not have all of the features available for a positive identification (see Response 19). The Botanical Floristic Survey requires multiple trips so less of an allowance will be made as most species should be observed during at least one of the visits. The Monitoring Data should be conducted at a time when the species targeted for monitoring will be visible.

16. Section 5.2.2.3 (page 20): Please clarify the plant nomenclature authority. The RFP states that “Vascular plant nomenclature shall follow the Flora of North America (FNA), for those families published (FNA Editorial Committee 1993+).” Later in the same section it states “Plant species’ name abbreviations shall be used on forms, in the database, on maps, and in GIS and shall follow the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) National Plants Database symbol protocol.” The two taxonomic authorities are not the same.

Response: Please use the USDA code that corresponds to the taxonomic name identified using FNA. USDA Plants may have a different accepted synonym for a species, but usually there is a code that corresponds to the species name in FNA. For example, FNA uses Amauriopsis dissecta as the accepted name while USDA plants treats A. dissecta as a synonym for Bahia dissecta. Should this species be located the USDA code for A. dissecta (AMDI5) would be used in documentation. These codes are generally listed under the “Synonyms” tab in USDA Plants. If a question of code arises, such as USDA Plants not having a code for a specific species, the Contractor should contact the COR for clarification.

17. Section 5.2.2.3 (page 20): What nomenclature should be used if a species is found in Flora of North America but not in the NRCS National Plants Database, or if no definitive synonymy connection exists?

Response: Please see Response 16 and if there are still questions on a specific species, the Contract should contact the COR.

18. Sections 5.2.2.6 (page 21), and 5.3.2.4 (page 24): The Quality Standard sections state that no less than 80% of vouchers submitted will have accurate identifications using the appropriate nomenclature. However, in section 7.1 (page 27), the AQL for voucher specimens states “85% of the submitted specimens correctly identified and properly processed.” What is the correct quality standard?

Response: Thank you for catching that discrepancy. The standard will be 80% correct identification/processing. See Amendment One.

19. Sections 5.5.1.1 and 5.5.1.2 (page 23): Regarding the bryophyte identification and specimen collection, what about species which are ephemeral or early/late season species, and therefore may not have reproductive structures present in order to positively identify to species, or to make herbarium quality voucher specimens? Will the contractor be penalized if some species do not have reproductive structures present during the time of inventory?

Response: No, the Contractor will not be penalized. Allowances will be made for species that do not have reproductive structures present so long as a voucher and location information are provided such that the Forest Service can relocate the site in the future.

20. Sections 5.5.1.1 (page 23), and 5.5.2.2 (page 24): Flora of North America is to be used for vascular plant nomenclature, but what is the preferred bryophyte species identification taxonomic authority? Who will verify the contractor’s bryophyte species identification?

Response: The taxonomic authority for bryophytes will be left up to the Contractor and should be included in the Work Plan for the Task Order. For the purposes of Quality Assurance, the Forest Service will verify identification in house; however we reserve the right to send any specimens to an outside expert for verification.

21. Section 5.6.1.1 (page 24) What is the taxonomic authority for species identification and nomenclature of lichens? Who will verify the contractor’s lichen species identification?

Response: The taxonomic authority for lichen will be left up to the Contractor and should be included in the Work Plan for the Task Order. For the purposes of Quality Assurance, the Forest Service will verify identification in house; however we reserve the right to send any specimens to an outside expert for verification.

22. Section 7.1 (page 27): (Additional question - answered during the pre-proposal conference call, but still left many questions unanswered). A 90% AQL is required for relocating known R2/SOLC sites, and 80% AQL for known non-R2/SOLC sites. The RFP states in 5.2.2.1 (page 20) that habitats identified as, moderate, or moderate to high probability habitat will require intuitive controlled survey type. Section 2.2.11.4 (page 15) defines intuitive controlled surveys, and states that “approximately 50-74% of the area has been examined.” How can the contractor be held to an AQL of 90% or 80% when 50-74% of the moderate, or moderate to high probability habitat area has been intensively examined? (For example the number of target species is approx. 202, covering a diverse set of environmental conditions [i.e., slope, aspect, landform setting, geological substrate, moisture settings, elevational requirements, etc.]. Therefore, a large number of different target species can be occupying a large variety of habitats that may be present in a mapping unit area [i.e., moderate probability area]. The only way to guarantee that no target species is missed is to survey 100% of the area, not “approximately 50-74% of the area.” The R2/SOLC species are limited and therefore habitat preferences can be determined more readily. However, for the rest of the species, the habitat preferences are from wet to dry, sunny to shady, limestone to granitic, streams to dry hillsides, etc.)

Response: The areas closely surveyed by an intuitive controlled survey should be guided by the habitat characteristics associated with target species. This means areas with these characteristics should be targeted for the closer look and therefore relocate known populations. This is one of the challenges that the Contractor can solve in many ways. The Government does not want to limit the ways any Contractor can conduct their surveys or compromise the quality of their end product. The idea behind this is that habitat of lower quality takes less time to survey because there are fewer target species to stop and document. Habitat marked as “moderate” will usually be of a certain variety and only have the potential to contain a limited number of species. A botanist can usually intuit which community types within a habitat have the greatest chance of housing target species thus are the area you would target your survey, other areas with limited number of species would not require intense surveying.

Amendment One will change definition of intuitive controlled survey to 50-80% of the area.

23. Section 7.1 (page 27): What if a previously documented population has been extirpated from a site but still shows up on the USDA Forest Service database for Target Species? Will the contractor be penalized for not locating that previously known population - as it potentially affects the AQL? Again, has the known Target Species locations been verified by USFS personnel within the past year? (This is important with herbaceous vegetation that may be readily eliminated from a site due to drought, fire, human disturbance, etc.)

Response: Target Species locations are visited on a regular basis. The Contractor will not be penalized for not relocating extirpated sites.

24. Section 7.1 (page 27): Who is the final authority for voucher specimen identification for AQL surveillance, and if specimen identification cannot be agreed upon, how will they be resolved? (Will they be resolved by a third party expert?)

Response: Forest Service botanists will serve as the final authority on voucher specimen identification for Quality Assurance. Any disagreement will be handled under 52.212-4 (d) Disputes. The Government reserves the right to bring in a third party expert to resolve any questions.

25. Section 7.1 (page 30): The final report section in the last row in Table 7.1 (on top of page 30) seems to be associated with the AQL for mapping community types, however the standard of “less than ten typographical errors or grammar errors” is significantly different than the error AQL for the report documenting findings (on page 27) which states “Final report with fewer than 5% of the pages containing errors.” Is this a new section or a continuation of a previous section? Please clarify.

Response: The last row of the AQL “Map Community Types” will be deleted in amendment one.

26. Section E.2.2 (page 32): (Additional Question: was answered in the pre-proposal conference call, but raised additional questions). In this section on Work Quality Percentage the word quadrant is used to describe how the work quality percentage is determined. What is the USFS definition of the word “quadrant?” What is the sampling interval of the “quadrant(s)?” What will determine the population within the sampled “quadrants” used for inspection? (The dictionary definition of quadrant does not make sense for use in this section.) (We ask that USFS give us their definition of quadrant, since it does not seem to conform to normal definitions for the word. We just want to make sure we are using USFS’s definition for the word.)

Response: Quadrants refers to subset of the product. In reports, the portions will be sections of content (i.e. Purpose of Survey, Description of Project Geography, etc.). Sections will be numbered and at least 10% will be sampled using a random number generator. These sections will be reviewed for AQL. In databases, portions will be records and all fields within a record will be reviewed. Again at least 10% of records will be sampled using a random number generator. In GIS portion will be features with associated data. At least 10% of features within a single shapefile will be sampled using a random number generator.

Amendment One will remove the word quadrant and replace it with:‘subset of the product’.

27. Section G.3 (page 37, first bullet point): (Additional Question: was answered in the pre-proposal conference call, but raised additional questions). Is the draft GIS shapefile of target species required to be submitted immediately following field work in order to be paid for completed field work? Depending on what information is required within the draft GIS shapefile, it appears that the contractor would have to complete much of the total project work (past experience shows approx. 75 percent of the total work) before they can receive the first quarter of payment if this is the case. Are we reading this correctly? This seems like it could be detrimental to small businesses. (Again, this seems onerous for small businesses. This will obviously increase the cost of conducting the work. Previously, it was 1/3 after the field work, 1/3 after the draft report, and 1/3 after the final report. Typically, the plant specimens are dried and cold treated at least twice to make sure all insects are killed. After this timeframe, the specimens are identified under a microscope and a number of different taxonomic treatments are used to see if they come up with the same plant. In some cases, we have looked at herbarium specimens to verify the identification of the plant. Then synonomy is checked to make sure it conforms with the Flora of North America. Finally the USDA PLANTS Database is used to determine the plant symbol. Most of the time, a preliminary “call” on a plant is made in the field. However, there are a number of plants in which either only a variety is the target species, or only a subspecies is the variety (depending on the taxonomic authority). This all takes time to sort out and generally cannot be done in the field. If we give you the preliminary list right after the field work, there will be a high probability that some of them may actually be incorrect. For example, if we gave you the list right after the field work, as was stated to do during the conference call, the list may change when the draft report finally comes out. Is that okay? The end result is that to provide a list of target species along with their shapefile (remember that some target species have been known to cover a number of acres spread out over a large landscape, all which take time to map in a GIS system) will take a long time before payment of the first 25%. To get to this stage results in at least 75% of the budget being spent. This seems like a heavy burden to small businesses.

Response: In order to ensure performance, the Government sets a specific event or performance criterion to be successfully achieved to authorize a performance payment. The draft GIS shapefile has been set as the performance criterion. This file can come from the GPS file created in the field and should include spatial with target species observed. A draft does not have to be identical to the final shapefile nor do all of the codes need to be 100% to standard of the final. The Forest Service simply needs certainty in the form of a product that work was completed in case the rest of the deliverables are not submitted. This will also allow Forest Service employees to inspect and verify locations prior to the end of field season.

28. Section G.3.2.1 (page 38): Are the formulas presented applicable only to the final 50 percent of the task order value? Or are these formulas cumulative through each of the draft process as well?

Response: The Acceptable Quality Level requirements are for all invoice submittals. The contractor can rework any task items not meeting the AQL to correct the task to meet the AQL. Deductions will be applied only if the task cannot be reworked and/or the final AQL has not been met.

Thank you for attending.