Attachment_A_-_SOW_Clarks_Fork_Yellowstone_LHA.docx

Statement of Work

Clarks Fork Yellowstone Land Health Assessment March 2022

Billings Field Office 5001 Southgate Drive Billings, MT 59101

1.0 INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

1.1 BACKGROUND

The BLM-Billings Field Office (BFO) manages approximately 400 grazing permits and leases with over 300 grazing authorization. The BiFO’s grazing allotments fall into three management categories: “custodial[footnoteRef:1]” management allotments, “maintain[footnoteRef:2]” category, and “improve[footnoteRef:3]” category allotments. The BLM is mandated to complete Land Health Assessments on all grazing allotments to ensure conformance of the grazing permits/leases terms and conditions with the provision of 43 CFR 4180 Fundamentals of Rangeland Health and Standards and Guidelines for Grazing administration. [1: Custodial-This is a grazing management category meaning the management is minimal in nature, due to the small amount of public land within the allotment. The BLM’s rationale for this classification is that there are no identified resource problems, and the size and continuity of the public land is not conducive to more intensive management by the BLM. The allotment has low potential for yielding a positive return on public investment in management or rangeland project development.] [2: Maintain-This is a grazing management category meaning the management is to maintain existing conditions and management within the allotment. M category allotments have a higher level of management opportunity for the BLM than C allotments] [3: Improve- This is a grazing management category meaning the management is to Improve existing conditions and management within the allotment. I category allotments have a highest level of management opportunity for the BLM.]

1.2 SCOPE

The contractor will be responsible for completing 30 Land Health Assessments (LHA) on 30 allotments in the Billings Field Office. The 30 monitoring plots will include 30 Line-Point Intercept transects that will be used to collect cover and composition data to support the indicators of rangeland health; species diversity, soil stability tests, sagebrush gap intercept, and vegetation height will be collected each monitoring plot. A complete description of the tasks and deliverables will be further explained below.

1.3 OBJECTIVES

The objective of the project is to complete 30 land health assessments to allow BiFO to remain current with grazing permit renewals. To complete a permit/lease renewal, land health assessments must be completed first to ensure conformance with the provision of 43 CFR 4180 Fundamentals of Rangeland Health and Standards and Guidelines for Grazing administration.

2.0 REQUIREMENTS

2.1 TASKS:

A. Contractor will coordinate legal access to site location with adjacent private landowners. The BLM will provide the contractor with contact information for the affected permittees of the allotments being monitored, to help facilitate access.

B. Provide labor which includes an Interdisciplinary Team of at a minimum of two people, one of which is a Rangeland Specialist, to complete Land Health Assessments (LHA) Monitoring across 30 allotments in Yellowstone and Carbon County of the Billings BLM Field Office (see Attachment 1 – map). Monitoring to be completed will consist of 30 indicators of rangeland health, Line Point Intercept, species inventory, soil stability, sagebrush gap intercept, and vegetation height. Vegetation height and sagebrush gap intercept can be read off the same transect as the Line Point Intercept transect. A total of 30 points will be monitored and the data collected at each point will be broken down as follows:

1. 30 locations: 17 Indicators for Rangeland Health

2. 30 locations: Line point intercept transect which consists of 50 points on a 25 meter transect

3. 30 locations: Species Richness (Inventory)

4. 30 locations: Soil Stability Test

5. 30 locations: Sagebrush Gap Intercept

6. 30 locations: Vegetation Height All 30 key areas will be pre-determined by the Billings Field Office and the contractor will document the location by GPS technology.

C. Rangeland Health Assessments: The data gathered from Line Point Intercept, Species Inventory (Richness), and soil stability will be used to help inform the relevant indicators for the 17 indicators of Rangeland Health. Sagebrush gap intercept and vegetation height will be used internally at BiFO for our own sagebrush assessments.

1. Conduct Rangeland Health Assessments and soil stability test in accordance with BLM's Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health Tech Ref 1734-6 (IIRH 2005 or latest version).

2. Conduct Daubenmire transect monitoring in accordance with BLM’s Sampling Vegetation Attributes Tech Ref 4400-4, (May 1985 or latest version)

3. Line Point intercept will be conducted by collecting 50 points on a 25-meter transect. The protocol will be in accordance with Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations Tech Ref 1730-1.

D. Data Collection: All data collected (Line Point Intercept, 17 indicators of Rangeland Health, species inventory, sagebrush gap intercept, and vegetation height) will be collected through Survey 1,2,3 forms on government furnished tablets. The data collected will be provided to the contractor as requested. In the event of any technical problems using the tablets, the government will provide hard copy data sheets.

1. Transect photos and GPS points will also be collected using the government furnished tablets.

2. After the contract is awarded a member of the Billings Field Office Staff will go out with the contractor to train how to use the tablet and collecting on the Survey 1,2,3 forms.

E. Reporting: Standard 1 of the Montana/Dakotas Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health and Livestock Grazing Management will be written for all 30 Allotments to assist the Billings Field Office in determining 1) achievement or non-achievement for each standard, 2) list of causal factors for not achieving Standards, and 3) conformance or non-conformance with guidelines within the list of allotments. The Billings Field Office will be the ultimate decision maker in regards with this document and the contractor will only be providing an assessment based on the data collected. The assessment write-up will include a summary of the site description including climate, topography, soils, vegetation, and the contractor will determine the appropriate ecological site and determine the area’s current ecological state as described NRCS’s Ecological Site Descriptions. See Attachment 2 as an example template for a Standards and Guidelines Assessment Write-up, for Standard 1.

2.3 SCHEDULE

Field Work: Field work will be collected in late spring/summer of 2022 when forbs can still be identified for the species richness (Inventory) form.

Assessment Write Up: Standards 1 along with the climate, soils, vegetation, etc. background information mentioned above, of the Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health and Livestock Grazing Management, will be due no later than 15 December 2022.

3.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY

The government will provide all GPS key point locations data, key area maps, hard copy data sheets, electronic Survey 1,2,3 forms, and data collection tablets. Access to sites will vary from public access to access across private land to get to the sites. The BLM will send out letters to all affected permittees before any data is collected informing them of the work being done.

4.0 CONTRACTOR FURNISHED PROPERTY

The Contractor shall provide a minimum of two personnel, one of which is a Rangeland Specialist, that would be present to work on each transect. The contractor will provide all tape measures that can accommodate a 25-meter transect and any incidentals on collecting data along the transects.

5.0 INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CONTENTS

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF KEY PERSONNEL: Offerors shall submit a resume of all key personnel proposed for this contract, which includes experience of the monitoring needs in this proposal.

Qualification Requirements At a minimum, the crew will consist of a two person Interdisciplinary Team (IDT), with one member being a rangeland specialist. An example of the other crew member could be another Rangeland Specialist, Wildlife Biologist, or similar resource background. At a minimum the crew will have at least one member that attended the Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health Training.

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, e-mail address. The Government may survey these clients to obtain past performance information (quality, timeliness, cost control, business relationships) related to Offerors 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.

EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

Technical factors, when combined, are considered:

|_| Significantly more important than price |X| Approximately equal to price |_| Significantly less important than price

QUOTE SUBMISSION: Submit quotes via e-mail to the Contracting Officer, Chris Brailer, at cbrailer@blm.gov NLT 4/22/2022 1700 MDT.

Page | 1 image3.jpeg image4.png image1.jpeg image2.png