PWS_Fuel_Management_Auburn_1.pdf

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Five Year Fuels Management for Auburn Project Lands:

Create and Maintain Shaded Fuel Breaks using Handcrews and Herbicides

1.0 SCOPE

The scope of this Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for shaded fuel break (Project) is to create and maintain 1,230 acres of shaded fuel breaks in the wilderness-urban interface with the intent of modifying fire behavior to increase the probability of success of fire suppression activities. This project proposes fuels reduction and maintenance (remove vegetation and apply herbicides) in an area up to 600-feet wide starting at the federal boundary line and into the APL at the WUI. After the treatment of priority areas, the maintenance of the existing fuel break will consist mainly of herbicide use, hand cutting and chipping.

2.0 BACKGROUND

Reclamation allows contractors and/or partnering agencies to support the creation and maintenance of 1,230 acres of SFB located along the Wildland Urban Interface of the Auburn State Recreation Area along the American Canyon rim of the communities of Applegate, Monte Verde Estates, Auburn, King Hill, Todd Valley, Georgetown-Greenwood, Auburn Lake Trails, Cool-Pilot Hill in Placer and El Dorado Counties, California.

Overall, the 1,230 acres of shaded fuel break will be created with the intent of modifying fire behavior to increase the probability of success of fire suppression activities. This project involves fuels reduction and maintenance (remove vegetation and apply herbicides) in an area up to 600-feet wide starting at the federal boundary line and into the APL at the WUI. After the treatment of priority areas, the maintenance of the existing fuel break will consist mainly of herbicide use, grazing, hand cutting and chipping or pile burning.

Slopes within the project area may be as steep as 60%. Sensitive environmental and ecological resources including pre-historic and historic cultural sites, habitats of special status wildlife and plant species, and riparian zones shall be avoided, or appropriate protection measures shall be implemented (see item E – Best Management Practices).

The project covers a variety of vegetation types, including foothill pine/oak woodland, Douglas-fir/mixed conifer, chapparal, and oak woodland. Elevation within the project area ranges from 1780 to 2400 feet, and slopes range from 0-50%. The maintenance portion of the project will reduce understory fuels that have emerged in the years after project creation.

Specific project objectives include:

1) Create a defensible location to be used by fire suppression resources to reduce wildland fire hazard

2) and increase fire crew safety. This is accomplished by reducing horizontal and vertical continuity of fuels to create a vegetative arrangement where wildfire reduces intensity as it burns into the shaded fuel break (ground fire is the target fire behavior within the treated area),

3) Reduce hazardous fuels such as trees, shrubs, brush, and other vegetative growth within the project area as prescribed,

4) Protect communities, infrastructure, and forest resources within the WUI;

5) Protect cultural and historic resources from catastrophic wildfire;

6) Conduct vegetation prescriptions to reduce fire hazard, improve tree growth, and increase

7) forest resiliency;

8) Thin from below to reduce the rate of spread, duration and intensity, and fuel ignition of crowns.

3.0 REFERENCES - The following list of documents are required in the performance of this contract:

Number

Title and Edition

Date

Source

1.

Appendix A: Fuels Reduction Prescription for Handcrews and Herbicide Treatment on SFB

October

EA/FONSI: CGB-EA-2021-056 Five-Year Fuels Management for Auburn Project Lands: Create and Maintenance of Shaded Fuel Breaks using Handcrews and Herbicides

2. Exhibit B: Project Maps:

38 acres Applegate SFB;

64 acres Monte Verde Estates;

27 acres King Hill SFB;

48 acres Todd Valley SFB;

98 acres Georgetown- Greenwood SFB;

227 acres Auburn Lake Trails;

176 acres Cool and Pilot Hill:

552 acres Auburn

October

EA/FONSI: CGB-EA-2021-056 Five-Year Fuels Management for Auburn Project Lands: Create and Maintenance of Shaded Fuel Breaks using Handcrews and Herbicides

4.0 TASKS - The contractor shall perform the following tasks:

All SFBs would be created pursuant to the Auburn Shaded Fuel Break (ASFB) Prescription (Prescription) provided in Appendix A. The contractors and/or partnering agencies would remove vegetation and apply herbicides in an area up to 600-feet wide starting at the federal boundary line and into the APL at the WUI.

A. Flagging

Project boundaries will be clearly flagged in fluorescent orange or surrounded by clear road boundaries. Work areas will be outlined by the CONTRACTOR prior to beginning work.

Work shall not occur outside of project boundaries. If there is a question on location of project boundaries, CONTRACTOR shall contact the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) prior to working in an area where the boundary is not clearly delineated.

The project area will be delineated by fluorescent orange flagging.

Watercourse protection zones will be delineated in blue flagging (refer to Item F for watercourse protections).

B. Manual Removal of Vegetation

Project activities will consist of removing ladder fuels (brush and tree limbs), and selectively removing small trees (those less than 10 inches at diameter breast height2; dbh), with the goal of reducing the intensity and spread of potential wildfires by discouraging the vertical movement of fire from the ground to the overhead tree canopy. Tree limbs and brush will be pruned to a height of 8 to 10 feet from the ground. Vegetation will be cut at ground level to avoid ground disturbance. Cut vegetation will be chipped and broadcast on-site or stacked in small piles for later disposal, as deemed appropriate by a Reclamation, on a case-by-case basis. All work would be accomplished by handcrews. The tools to be utilized include but would not be limited to chippers, string trimmers, weed wrenches, chainsaws, and loppers.

C. Herbicide Use

Herbicides may be used to assist with maintaining the SFB of dense vegetation. Unwanted vegetation would be treated using EPA and State of California registered and Reclamation approved herbicides, following label guidelines. Only contractors possessing a current Qualified Applicator License and/or their designees, who are certified applicators are authorized to apply herbicides. These herbicides should be classified as general use products that can be purchased by the public. Herbicides would be applied by hand using backpack sprayers or by the “hack and squirt” method. The hack and squirt method means workers would carry a small bottle of concentrated herbicide, make small incisions in the vegetation, and then squirt a few milliliters of spray into the plant at its base. Herbicides would not be applied near water, perennial drainages nor intermittent or ephemeral streams when flowing, and no one project area would be treated more than three times during the calendar year.

D. Access and Schedule

All vehicles and equipment used to transport hand crews, chippers and slash material (cut wood) would utilize existing roads and trails. Work would commence in the fall of 2022 and priority sites are listed as per the Project Schedule. The SFBs would be maintained on an annual basis for five years, as funding and resources are available.

E. Inspections

COR will conduct inspections to ensure that the services are acceptable. Inspections do not relieve the CONTRACTOR of the responsibility for maintaining quality control. Compliance inspections will be made on a sporadic basis. Such inspections are not final, and do not constitute acceptance by the District. Final inspections for payment will be made on completed items only. CONTRACTOR is encouraged to break the job out into logical measurable units.

F. Conservation Measures

To minimize or avoid potential resource impacts, the following measures would be implemented:

• If work is to be done during the nesting season (March 1 – August 31), a qualified biologist will survey the project area not more than five days ahead of the anticipated work commencement and flag nest sites for avoidance.

• All nests will be avoided by establishing buffers per state and federal guidelines.

• The project will avoid removing any trees greater than 10-inch dbh; if trees greater than 10 -inch dbh needs to be removed, the project manager will obtain Reclamation’s approval first.

• Trees eligible for removal are to be cut at the base of the trunk, with the root ball left in place.

• Ground fuels and grasses will be cut to just above ground level in a manner that does not result in soil disturbance.

• No herbicide application would occur during a rain event or the 24-hour period following a rain event. A rain event is to be considered precipitation of ¼ inch or more within a 24-hour period.

• Project activities will occur only during daylight hours (one-half hour prior to sunrise and one-half hour after sunset).

• Trampling of milkweed will be avoided.

• Herbicides will not be applied in or within 20 feet of aquatic habitats, perennial drainages or intermittent or ephemeral streams when water is present or 60 feet if these features fall within a species critical habitat.

• Workers will be provided environmental training to increase their ability to properly identify species of interests (species to avoid).

• Off-road traffic outside of designated project areas is prohibited.

• All food-related trash items, such as wrappers, cans, bottles, and food scraps, will be removed daily from the project site.

• Equipment will not be left onsite overnight.

5.0 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE / PROJECT SCHEDULE

The period of performance will be from September 15, 2022 to September 14, 2027. Task orders may be placed during the period of performance based on the unit prices in the price schedule.

6.0 PROJECT AREAS

Reclamation would allow contractors and/or partnering agencies to create and maintain 1,230 acres of SFBs located adjacent to the APL in Placer and El Dorado Counties in California (see Exhibit B).

Shaded Fuel Break Name Agencies Involved Fire Safe Council Total Area

Auburn SFB Placer RCD, Calfire, City of Auburn, CCC, DPR

Greater Auburn Area 552

Applegate CCC Place Sierra 38 Monte Verde Estates CCC Monte Verde Estates HOA 64 King Hill CCC Forest Hill/Iowa Hill 27 Todd Valley - Foresthill CCC Forest Hill/Iowa Hill 48 Cool-Pilot CCC, BLM Cool 176 Auburn Lake CCC, BLM Auburn Lake Trails 227 Georgetown-Greenwood CCC, BLM El Dorado County 98

1,230

7.0 PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

Task Description

Performance

Indicator

Performance Standard

Minimum Acceptable Quality

Level Handcrew Fuels Reduction

Herbicide Treatments

Contractor shall provide before and after photos representative of the acres before and after the RX made and the fuels reduced.

Contractor will provide photo documentation and map locations (jpeg) to illustrate compliance in (approximately) 5-10 acre-areas completed as work progresses.

Contractor will provide representative photos and Map Location Status (JPEG) on a weekly basis to COR.

8.0 DATA AND REPORTS - The contractor shall provide the following data and reports as follows:

Description

Content

Medium

Delivery

Summary Report after Description of the data or report.

Monthly Progress Report.

Acres Site Location/maps Methods

Address the content elsewhere in the PWS or here. Insert in this block, “See PWS, paragraph ____.”

MS Word, and CD

2 copies to the COR NLT COB 5 days after the end of the calendar month.”

9.0 DELIVERABLES - The contractor shall submit the following reports in accordance with paragraph 5.0, “DATA AND REPORTS”:

The Contractor shall use the CalFire Grants Reporting Standards for Data and Report standards.