GSF Cow Creek Wildfire A.pdf

This is a sale advertisement document issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida Forest Service for a salvage timber sale following the Cow Creek Wildfire. The project involves the sale of timber comprising approximately 587 acres within the northwest perimeter of the Cow Creek Wildfire area in the Black Prong Tract of Goethe State Forest in Levy County, Florida, situated southeast of County Road 343. The timber sale includes dead, dying, and green pine timber categorized into two harvest areas: a Primary area of approximately 399 acres designated for clearcut harvest and a Contingency area of approximately 188 acres that will be monitored by the Forester-in-Charge to determine if additional harvesting is required. All harvesting operations in the Contingency area will proceed only at the direction of the Forester-in-Charge. All operations must commence within ten calendar days of contract execution. The timber sale is being advertised simultaneously with Cow Creek Road Salvage Sales B and C, with the restriction that if a single bidder wins more than one sale, that bidder must forfeit all but one sale to the next highest bidder to enable faster response and adequate equipment deployment. A mandatory site review with the buyer must be conducted by the Forester-in-Charge before harvest operations commence, with special attention to waterbodies and red-cockaded woodpecker cluster exclusion areas that will be marked by the Forester-in-Charge. Timber will be designated for removal by the Forester-in-Charge or an authorized representative and may include scattered clusters of infected or dying trees, though the buyer is not obligated to harvest non-merchantable timber or timber deemed undersized or economically unviable.

The document does not specify detailed pricing terms, set-aside provisions, or funding information within the available content. The sale structure prioritizes environmental protection through designated exclusion zones and requires coordination with the Forester-in-Charge throughout the harvest process to ensure compliance with salvage objectives and ecological considerations related to the wildfire recovery effort.