PWS Rare Plant Survey.pdf

BOTANY RARE PLANT SURVEY PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Superior National Forest, Minnesota

SCOPE OF WORK

The intent of the work is to perform botanical surveys for Regional Forester Sensitive Species (RFSS) plants - survey specified areas for the presence of rare vascular plants and non-vascular plants on the RFSS plant list for the Superior National Forest. Requirements for this botanical survey are described below.

RFSS PLANT SURVEY:

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the survey is to identify locations of RFSS plants in areas proposed for natural resource management so that managers can help minimize and avoid impacts to such plants.

The target survey area for the first, base year, is the Fernberg Corridor Project Area, located in Lake County, Minnesota. The target survey areas for subsequent option years may be anywhere within the Superior National Forest across St. Louis, Lake, and Cook Counties.

DESCRIPTION AND LOCATION

In the base year, the contractor shall survey for RFSS vascular and non-vascular plant species on 835.5 acres of federal land in several areas of the Superior National Forest on Kawishiwi Ranger District (see attached maps and Stand Data Summaries); the target area for Option Period 1 will be determined near the end of the base year, and Option Period 2 determined near the end of Option Period 1, and so forth.

The target areas are forested or non-forested stands that may be either uplands or wetlands. The areas to be surveyed are not physically identified on the ground, but are delineated on the project maps.

PERFORMANCE PERIOD

The Contractor must (a) commence work under this contract by the earliest date listed on each item (listed in the schedule of items) awarded, (b) prosecute the work diligently, and (c) complete all field work by the latest date listed on each item awarded (listed on schedule of items). Contractors are encouraged to become familiar with the location of items before work is required to begin. Reports will be produced by December 31st, 2023 for the base period of the contract and December 31st for subsequent periods.

Notifications to the contractor of a given option period’s locations and acreage (not to exceed 850 acres) will coincide with any notices of the Option to Extend the Term of the Contract.

PRE-WORK CONFERENCE

Before any contract work is started, the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) will arrange for a pre-work conference to discuss contract terms, work requirements and schedule. At this time, the contractor will present a proposed progress schedule for accomplishing the work.

GOVERNMENT FURNISHED ITEMS

For the RFSS Plant Survey, the Government shall make available to the contractor the following listed material:

1. Forest map

2. Maps identifying forest stands for survey

3. Topographic maps

4. Aerial photos

5. Rare plant occurrence information in or near project area

6. ArcMap layers identifying forest stands if desired

TECHNICIAL REQUIREMENTS/TASKS

The contractor must furnish all equipment, labor, materials (except government furnished items), transportation, lodging, supervision, and incidentals necessary to conduct surveys. The contractor must determine habitat relationships and phenology for each of the species on the 2023 Superior National Forest Rare Plant List (Attachment 1). Using this information, the contractor must conduct a pedestrian survey for vascular and non-vascular plants on the RFSS list for the Superior National Forest, which are listed in bold on the 2023 Superior National Forest Rare Plant List. If the contractor finds any RFSS plants or any other rare plants on the 2023 Superior National Forest Rare Plant List, they shall document them as described below. If there are known RFSS plant occurrences in a target stand (shown on attached maps), the contractor shall attempt to re-locate the occurrence and document its presence/absence.

The survey must be conducted most intensively where and when the species of concern are likely to be found. The random meander survey technique (Nelson 1985) must be used, in which the contractor focuses search efforts in areas of highly suitable rare plant habitat, while making more cursory survey efforts in areas of less suitable rare plant habitat. The contractor must make a good faith effort to distribute searches throughout all potential community types or habitats where rare species may be found, and do so at the times of the year appropriate to identify the plant. It is the contractor’s duty to determine survey timing and number of surveys required for a given locale. A minimum of one visit to each survey stand is required, and more than one may be necessary depending on the habitats present in the stand and which rare plants potentially occur there. Surveys will cover areas identified on the enclosed maps.

The contractor must also document (as described below) any occurrences which they observe within the contract stands of the following noxious weeds: common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).

References below to noxious weeds refer to these species.

Data collected and reports prepared under this contract are the property of the Forest Service. Data publication is prohibited without prior consent of the Forest Service and the Forest Service reserves the right to edit any potential publications. The Forest Service will be acknowledged in any publications using such data.

The contractor must:

1. Provide the COR with a survey plan prior to doing field surveys.

2. Report survey progress to the COR with a monthly report of days and time spent in the field.

3. Search for RFSS vascular and non-vascular plants in designated stands.

4. Mark all rare plant sites in the field using flagging. Flagging should be hung at the approximate center of each rare plant occurrence, and the contractor shall write their initials, the date, and the plant name on the flagging.

5. Record the location of any rare plant or noxious weed occurrences as a point using a Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS coordinates will be stored in UTM, NAD83.

6. Record the path of the contractor’s traverse through the stand using GPS (UTM, NAD83), for example with a GPS trackfile.

The contractor must submit a report summarizing the results of the field surveys. The report may be in Microsoft Word or PDF format. No hard copy reports are needed. Each final report must include:

7. Summary of rare plant and noxious weed findings.

8. A listing of the different native plant communities found in each target stand, as described in

Field Guide to the Native Plant Communities of Minnesota: The Laurentian Mixed Forest

(MNDNR 2003).

9. List of all plant species seen in each target stand, by MNDNR NPC type. Latin names should be used. This list shall be limited to species with which the contractor is familiar and is not intended to be exhaustive or complete.

10. Completed Rare Plant Occurrence Form (Attachment 2) for each new rare plant occurrence found. The form shall be completed for any plant species listed on the 2022 Superior National Forest Rare Plant List that is found in the stands targeted for surveys. The data required on the form can also be submitted in an alternative format if approved by the COR.

11. Completed Superior National Forest Noxious Weed Occurrence Form (Attachment 3) for any new noxious weed occurrence.

12. Locations of rare plant and noxious weed occurrences displayed on USGS quad map.

13. Location of contractor’s traverse path through the target stands diplayed on USGS quad map.

14. Electronic version of point locations of rare plants and noxious weeds; the format must be an

ArcGIS shapefile.

15. Electronic version of contractor’s trackfile showing the path of the traverse through each survey stand; the format must be an ArcGIS shapefile.

16. Locations of rare plants and noxious weeds displayed on maps generated by the Contractor shall be easily related to the respective Rare Plant Occurrence Form (e.g. Luzula parviflora occurrences 1, 2, and 3, should should be labeled as such on both map and Rare Plant Occurrence Form).

For each rare plant occurrence found, submit:

17. A good quality color digital photo of the species. This will serve as a voucher if no voucher specimen is able to be collected.

18. A voucher specimen to the University of Minnesota herbarium (MIN). The COR may exempt the contractor from this requirement if numerous sites are located. Vouchers shall not be collected from small populations of targeted rare plants.

The Contractor shall submit the electronic copy of the report to:

Jack Greenlee USDA Forest Service Laurentian Ranger District 318 Forestry Rd.

Aurora, MN 55705 john.greenlee@usda.gov

QUALIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTOR AND EMPLOYEES

The Contractor and their employees must be able to correctly identify all plant species found in the Superior National Forest by sight or other means such as use of taxonomic keys. The Contractor must be able to distinguish the plants found on the Superior National Forest from one another.

INCENTIVES

For the RFSS Plant Survey, incentive payments will be made at a rate of $60 per new, unknown RFSS plant population located within target survey stands, or in stands immediately adjacent to such target stands. Because of the tendency of Botrychium species to occur in multi-species colonies, Botrychium colonies containing RFSS species will be treated as ONE RFSS location.

Payments will be made once the species identification is verified, and will be limited to ONE location per species (or colony) per stand, not to exceed 20% of the total Bid Item price. The incentive payment can be delayed for up to 1 year, because of the need to have some species verified by a species expert.

Superior National Forest, Minnesota