B08_Attach__1_Little_Browns_Creek__Haz_Fuels_PWS.docx

Contents

1.0 Background on the Government’s Requirement

Bureau of Land Management Redding Field Office is requesting 205 acres of hand thinning, hand piling, and pile covering of hazard fuels adjacent to Little Brown’s Creek in Trinity County, CA. Heavy accumulations of hazard fuels on public lands within the Little Brown’s Creek watershed have created elevated wildfire threat to infrastructure and natural resources. Hand thinning, Piling, and Pile Covering will be used to reduce fuel loadings within four identified treatment units ranging from 20 acres to 120 acres in the overall 205-acre project area. Elevation in the treatment areas range from 1,920 feet and 3,310 feet, with slopes ranging from 30% to 60%. Vegetation is made up of mixed conifer, isolated pockets of oak woodlands and dense woody shrubs. Canopy cover ranges from 30% to 100% within the treatment areas. BLM is requesting cost per acre and cost per sub-unit bids within the identified project area.

Project Location:

Township 33N Range 9W Section 20, 19. Proposed treatment units are located throughout Section 20 and a small portion of Section 19, adjacent to Little Browns Creek Road and Browns Mountain Road in Trinity County, California (see Figures 1-1 and 1-2). The project area contains only BLM land and all environmental clearance requirements such as NEPA, and cultural surveys are complete for the project.

This scope of work defines the requirements for the contractor to provide forestry or hazard fuels personnel to cut, pile, and pile cover vegetation within the project area.

2.0 General Scope of Work

Services include hand cutting with power saws, hand piling cut material, and pile covering of live and dead standing or fallen vegetation on up to 205 acres of public land within Little Brown’s Creek watershed of Trinity County, CA. The Contractor shall accomplish all cutting, piling, and covering within the designated treatment area in accordance with the specifications identified. Cutting, piling, and pile covering will occur within the entirety of this project area (205 acres), but will be divided by four independent sub units in which contractors will provide a cost per acre and cost per sub-unit price.

Place of Performance

The services under this contract will be performed at Little Brown’s Creek project area which is in Trinity County, CA and contains approximately 205 acres of hand cutting, piling, and pile covering treatments on public lands administered by the Burau of Land Management (BLM) Redding Field Office (see attached map). The project area is located approximately 5 miles South/ Southeast of Weaverville, CA, within Sections (or parts of Sections) of the following Township (T) and Range (R) identifiers: T33N R9W Section 20, 19.

Driving Directions to Project Area:

Little Brown’s Creek Hazard Fuels Project: From Weaverville, CA drive South 3 miles on Highway 299, turn East on Little Brown’s Creek Road for ½ mile, arrive BLM property boundary and hazard fuels access point. Additional unit access is available from Brown’s Mountain Road, approx. ½ mile further East along Little Brown’s Creek Road. Further unit access is also available through private property along Hall Way approx. 1/10th mile South from Weaverville CA on Highway 299.

Access Specifications:

Access will be by both gravel roads (improved) and dirt roads (unimproved), which may require four- wheel drive vehicles. Access is by all-weather and seasonal roads. Seasonal roads may be impassable for several days after heavy rains or snow-blocked during the winter months. Cross-country foot travel of one-half mile to one mile is typical to the unit boundaries and treatment areas.

If an all-terrain vehicle is used, it shall be of such design that it will travel over rough, uneven terrain and not create wheel ruts and channels, or cause significant damage to existing trail tread. The vehicle shall be approved by the COR prior to use.

Portions of the project area are beyond locked gates that require a key or lock combination for access. The Contractor will be given access to gate combos and required agency keys to make access, gate keys must be returned to the COR at the end of the period of performance. The Contractor shall lock gates with locks immediately after entry or exit.

Access through private property and use of private roads will be through agreement between BLM and adjacent private landowners. Gate combos or keys will be relayed to the contractor by the BLM. Contractor access through private property may be terminated by the landowner or BLM related to road condition, haul route conflicts, or gate security issues.

Hours of Operations:

The Contractor will coordinate their hours of operation with BLM, but the Contractor is not restricted to operating during regular BLM office hours. Chainsaw work may not begin until 1/2hr after sunrise and must end 1/2hr after sunset on any given working day. Other hours of operation restrictions may be implemented during high fire danger or during previously scheduled events.

Security of Equipment and Property:

The Contractor may leave equipment at the work site with approval from the COR. The Contractor shall be responsible for equipment if it should be lost, stolen or damaged. At the close of each work period, government facilities, equipment, and materials shall be secured. All personnel employed by the Contractor in the performance of this contract, or any representative of the Contractor entering the government worksite, shall abide by all security regulations.

Period of Performance:

The period of performance shall be for two years to complete all base year units (1-3) and if exercised, option year units 4.

The Period of Performance reads as follows:

Base:

Units 1-3 (Totaling 85 acres) September 1st 2022 through March 15th 2023 September 1st 2023 through March 15th 2024

Option 1: Unit 4 - 120 acres

3.0 Overall Objective(s)

The objective of this work is to reduce wildfire threat and promote forest health by reducing fuel loadings in overstocked mixed conifer, oak woodland, and woody shrub stands in Little Brown’s Creek project area. The proposed treatment will occur on public lands in Trinity County, CA administered by the Bureau of Land Management Redding Field Office.

· Fuel breaks will be constructed by hand severing, hand piling, and pile covering live or dead standing, and dead downed vegetation.

· Fuels breaks will focus on breaking continuity of vertical and horizontal fuels stands to limit unchecked fire spread in overstocked stands.

· Fuel Breaks will promote large conifer and hardwood stands that are resilient to future wildfires.

4.0 Specific Tasks

All tasks will occur through the entirety of the project area, approx. 205 acres total.

Task 1: Hand sever using power saws live and dead standing or fallen vegetation throughout identified treatment units – see attached treatment map.

· Hand cut live standing vegetation up to 8 inches DBH. Post treatment spacing of 30 feet between stems of 8 inches DBH or larger leave trees.

· No live or dead limbs shall be left on the stumps after cutting. Stump height shall not exceed 6 inches measured on the uphill side.

· Conifer trees up to 15 inches DBH may be cut when growing within the canopy dripline of an oak tree (any species) greater than 10 inches DBH.

· Pruning of all leave trees and leave snags to a height of 6 feet to 8 feet above ground level.

· Live and dead limbs and branches shall be cut cleanly and as close to the bole of the tree as possible.

· Tree limbs and branches attached to the bole above the designated pruning height, but have limbs or branches extending into the pruning height area, shall be pruned so they do not extend below the designated height.

· Hand cut, limb and buck downed fuels up to 8 inches diameter, material greater than 8 inches diameter will be bucked to create maximum contact with ground surface and left on site. Un-piled logs and slash (greater than 8 inches) will be set back 10 feet from trails, infrastructure, or roadways.

Task 2: Hand pile all cut material and downed slash throughout identified treatment units – see attached treatment map.

· Cut material and slash between 1/2 inch and 8 inches in diameter and greater than 2 feet in length will be piled to minimum pile dimensions of 6 foot by 6 foot and maximum of 12 foot by 12 foot tall and wide.

· Slash less than 1/2 inch in diameter or less than 2 feet in length shall be left on the ground. Slash left on the ground shall not exceed 6 inches in depth.

· Piles will be compact, free of interior open spaces, free of dirt or other non-combustibles.

· Piles will be placed a minimum of 10 feet from leave trees, trails, fence lines, and roadways.

· Piles will not be built within stream, cultural, or other exclusion areas or buffers.

· All roads and trails designated on the project map(s) shall be kept free of slash and piled material.

Task 3: Hand pile covering all created piles within treatment areas – see attached map.

· All hand piles shall be covered with a minimum of 6-foot by 6-foot piece of 4-mil thickness black polyethylene plastic or similar material. Hand piles shall be covered such that at least 80 percent of the pile’s surface area shall be covered. All four corners and the middle of the plastic sheets shall be anchored with slash or other debris. The plastic sheets or similar material must be placed in the top ¼ of the pile.

· All pile covering material will be provided by the contractor unless otherwise agreed upon with the BLM.

Criteria for Selection of Leave Trees:

All live conifers and hardwoods lager than 8 inches DBH are reserved from cutting or girdling. All living Blue Oak and Black Oak hardwoods regardless of diameter will be retained. These trees shall be included in spacing requirements. The largest, healthiest, best-formed trees shall be selected as leave trees. Characteristics used in the selection of leave trees include the following:

· Has no apparent damage to the main bole;

· Is not visibly dead/dying;

· Demonstrates good vigor and is disease/bug free;

· Has at least 40 percent crown ratio or largest crown ratio if none greater than 40 percent are present

5.0 Delivery / Performance Schedule

Mapping:

Unit boundaries are not marked. A shapefile and PDF Map of the treatment area for GPS/ Avenza will be provided and contractor will be required to accurately work within boundary of unit. Trailheads, intersections, and trail spurs are identified with recreation signage.

Additional Information:

The Contractor is responsible for organizing and directing all the equipment and personnel needed to fully accomplish the work. The Contractor shall develop and submit a Treatment Plan and Schedule to accomplish the project objectives. The Treatment Plan and Schedule will be agreed upon by both parties and incorporated into the contract at the Pre-Work. All changes to the Treatment Plan and Schedule will be agreed to prior to the changes taking effect. The Treatment Plan and Schedule shall include as a minimum the following items:

1. Cutting Plan – Discussed in more detail at Pre-Work meeting

2. Safety Plan – To include traffic control, identification of hazards, and trail closures if applicable

3. Fire Prevention Plan – For prevention and control of fires, with detailed list of personnel and equipment

Statutory Compliance:

The Contractor agrees to conduct operations under this contract and other related business activities in compliance with federal, state, and local statutes, standards, orders, permits or other regulations. Failure to comply will be grounds for default in accordance with the Default clause. The contract shall govern if such laws conflict with or preclude performance of contractual requirements.

Improvements:

The Contractor shall comply with the rules and regulations governing the operation of premises which are occupied and shall perform the contract in a manner that will not interrupt or interfere with the conduct of BLM business.

Before any camp, quarry, borrow pit, storage or service area other than shown on drawings is opened or operated lands administered by the BLM, written permission shall be obtained through the BLM and COR. A camp is interpreted to include the campsite or trailer parking area of any employee working on the project for Contractor. Such permission, if granted, shall be without charge to Contractor. Contractor must remove and dispose of all said improvements when no longer needed.

Wildlife Resources:

The Contractor shall comply with seasonal restrictions administered by the Bureau of Land Management project design features. No treatments will be permitted from March 15 until September 1 of any given year of project implementation.

Sensitive resource areas will be flagged and identified on maps provided at the pre-work meeting. Treatments are not permitted in this project from March 15 until September 1 of any given year of project implementation. However, if this protection measure proves inadequate, if other such areas are discovered, or if new concerns are identified, the BLM may either cancel or unilaterally modify this contract to provide additional protection regardless of when such facts become known. Discovery of such areas by either party shall be promptly reported to the other party and operations will be suspended at that location until the significance or potential significance of the area is determined.

Any active raptor nest found will be reported to the Wildlife Biologist and project activities ceased within a 0.5-mile buffer until surveys indicate that project activities would not disturb nesting and/or breeding activities.

Protection of Improvements:

The Contractor shall protect roads and other improvements (such as fences, roads, trails, telephone lines, and ditches) whether designated on the project area map or not.

Protection of Improvements Not Owned by the BLM:

The Contractor will notify all utility companies, or other parties affected, and plans for all necessary adjustments of the public utility fixtures, pipelines, and other appurtenances affected by Contractor’s operations.

When Contractor’s operations are adjacent to properties of railway, telegraph, telephone, or power companies, or other property, work shall not begin until all necessary arrangements to prevent damage have been made by the Contractor.

The Contractor will cooperate with all owners of above-mentioned property. In the event of interruption because of accidental breakage, the Contractor shall promptly notify the proper authority, and cooperate with that authority in the restoration of service.

Protection of Land Survey Monuments:

The Contractor shall protect all known survey monuments, witness corners, reference monuments and bearing trees against any damage during Contractor’s operations.

Safety:

The Contractor will follow all United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Standards that pertain to the operations set forth in this contract under Subpart R, Special Industries Standards 1910.266 Logging Operations Standards.

Sanitation and Servicing:

The Contractor shall take all reasonable precautions to prevent pollution of air, soil, and water by Contractor’s operations. If facilities for employees are established within the project area, they shall be operated in a sanitary manner. Contractor shall not service tractors, trucks or other equipment on BLM lands where servicing is likely to result in pollution to soil or water.

Contractor shall remove from BLM lands all refuse resulting from use, servicing, repair, or abandonment of equipment. If the contractor’s operations or servicing of equipment result in pollution to soil or water, Contractor shall conduct cleanup to restore the polluted site to the previous observed conditions, and approved by the COR.

6.0 Government-Furnished Property, Materials, Services

General:

The Contractor shall furnish all personnel, materials, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform the work tasks defined in this Performance Work Statement, except for those items specified as government furnished property and services.

Materials:

The Contractor shall furnish all materials necessary to meet the requirement of this contract except for those items specified as government-furnished property and services.

Equipment:

The Contractor shall furnish equipment necessary to meet the requirement of this contract except for those items specified as government-furnished property and services.

7.0 Security and Administrative Matters

Regular Work Hours:

Unless otherwise specified work hours under this task order shall be limited to the time between one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset each day. Work may be done on Saturday, Sunday with notification to the COR, however work will not occur on Federal holidays unless authorized by the COR.

Federal Holidays:

The following Federal Legal Holidays are observed:

Christmas Day

Fire Danger Season:

The Contractor shall take every reasonable precaution to prevent a wildland fire from occurring from his or her actions on this project. The Authorized Officer may, under certain conditions, require fire prevention and control measures in addition to those required by applicable state laws and regulations. This may include but will not be limited to changes in daily work schedules or full closure of operations due to extreme fire risk.

8.0 Technical Exhibits and Definitions

Standard Definitions:

Physical Condition The Physical appearance of Federal equipment or facilities that considers cracks, chips, dents, abrasions, rust, corrosion, general cleanliness, vibration, operating temperature, and discoloration and other items as identified by the COR.. Physical condition may be determined by visual as well as diagnostic means.

Contracting Officer (CO) The Secretary of the Interior or designated authorized representative who is the only agent capable of signing a federal award or obligating funds.

Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) The Contracting Officer’s designated representative as indicated in a delegation of authority letter.

Quality Assurance (QA) Surveillance of Contractor performance to determine performance requirements are met.

Performance Requirements Summary (PRS) (see Technical Exhibit below)

The PRS identifies the key performance indicators of the Contract that will be evaluated by the Government to assure Contract performance standards are met by the Contractor.

Quality Control Those actions taken by the Contractor to control the production of goods or services so that they meet the requirements of the performance work statement.

Little Brown’s Creek Fuels Reduction Performance Work Statement (PWS)

PWS Page 5

EXHIBIT X: QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP)

Task(s):

1: Hand Sever

2: Hand Pile All trees, brush, and downed material up to 8 inches in diameter must be hand severed using power saws in accordance with the specification listed under Section 4 of this task order.

All cut material and downed slash from 1/2 to 8 inches in diameter and greater than 2 feet in length must be piled in accordance with the specifications listed under section 4 of this task order.

The COR and/or Project Inspector (PI) will conduct government inspections. The Contractor (or designated representative) is encouraged to be present to observe inspections. Summary results will be made available on request. Government inspections will consist of:

a. Compliance Inspections Visual compliance inspections of work tasks will be made on a periodic basis across the project area. Such inspections are not final and do not constitute acceptance by the Government.

b. Final Inspections Final inspections for payment will be made on the completed project unit unless otherwise agreed upon in writing. Contractor shall request a final inspection.

Inspection requests shall be verbal and documented within the diary or in writing and pursuant to FAR 52.246-4, shall include results of Contractor’s quality inspections. Inspections will be completed within ten

(10) calendar days after the notice is received for each item. If a formal request for an item inspection is within the ten (10) working days since the previous request, the time will not start until the time for the previous inspection expires.

The Contractor will be responsible for ensuring his or her crew can identify leave trees and cut to desired spacing distances.

The contractor will be made aware of the deficiencies and documented in the COR’s diary. Deficiencies will need to be corrected within 48 hours unless the BLM representative states otherwise.

Incentives/Disincentives

a. Contractor will be required to rework the area at no additional cost to the Government

b. The Government will charge to the Contractor any additional cost of subsequent inspection of reworked area

c. Positive or negative Performance rating at the end of the contract (this will have definitive impacts on the

3. Pile Covering

All piles created within the project area must be covered under the specification outlined within section 4 of this task order.

See above

See above image1.emf image2.emf

Weaver Creek Lit tle Br ow ns

Cr eek

Tri nit y R ive r

Sta te H wy

St ate

H

Mark Rd

Bennor Pl

Baudizzon Ln

Co x

Oak

Ridge Rd

Fa irw ay D r

Virginia St

Be au dr ea x

Ponderosa

257 Industrial Pkwy

Fa irw ay Dr

Riffle Box

Creek Rd

Ransom

Da vis

Industrial

Prkwy

Mi ll S t

Mo un tai n V iew

Ma so nic rti n R d

Gl en

R

Un ion

Hi ll R

Main St

Hwy 299 in

Browns Mtn Rd

Litt le B row

Cree k R

Sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, Intermap, increment P Corp., GEBCO, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN, GeoBase, IGN, Kadaster NL, Ordnance Survey, Esri Japan, METI, Esri China (Hong Kong),

(c) OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community

Little Browns Creek - OVERVIEW Hand Cut Pile - 120 acres

¹

0 0.35 0.7 1.05 1.40.175 Miles

Legend Little Browns Unit 4 BLM___Little_Browns_Units_1.2.3 BLM Lands (Redding FO) image3.emf

We av er

Little Browns Creek

H

Hw y 3

Industrial Pkwy Hw y 2

Little Browns Creek Rd

Little Browns Creek - BLM Units 1, 2, 3 Hand Cut Pile - 84 acres

0 0.09 0.18 0.27 0.360.045 Miles

BLM___Little_Browns_Units_1.2.3

Unit 1 Unit 2

Unit 3

27 ac 24 ac

34 ac image4.emf

Br ow

Brow

Cree k R

Little Browns Creek - BLM Unit 4 Hand Cut Pile - 120 acres

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.40.05 Miles

Little Browns Unit 5

Unit 4 120 ac