Questions on Statement of Work for NWOCESU-17-28 .pdf

TASK 1: NAFB NATIVE AMERICAN CONSULTATION SUPPORT SERVICES

(RKXF177300)

Will contractors be responsible to participate in monthly conferences calls or NFE?

NAFB prefers both.

Will contractors be responsible for providing transportation and vehicles for investigations of sites on the NTTR? Yes

Sub-Task 2: For bi-annual meeting guest speakers, are subcontractors responsible for lodging?

(Document articulates per diem and travel, but does not state lodging specifically.) Yes

Sub-Task 2: Is half honoraria given on half-meeting days? Yes

Sub-Task 3: Is there honorarium for site visits? No

Sub-Task 3: How many reps will participate in each site visit? No set limit, there are 36 days of site visits. Duration/# of reps can vary.

Optional Sub-Task 5: How many visits should be budgeted for? 1 per tribe? Up to 17 total trips.

1 trip is $1,500.

Optional Sub-Task 5: Documents says NAC will be funded for visit PLUS travel, etc.--does that mean an hourly wage? If so, what rate will he be funded for visit? Fixed rate. NAC will be funded $1,000 plus travel, lodging and per diem.

Optional Sub-Task 6: What funding is involved in Document Review Committee? Hourly rate? 7 documents, but how many days/hour of review anticipated?

• Reviewers = $600 per document per reviewer, four reviewers per document, maximum of 7 documents.

• Lead/Coordinator is the NAC, $3,000 per document.

Optional Sub-Task 6: Will Document Review Committee support be remote or in-person?

(According to document, it sounds like document review will be individually at reviewers' homes, but there had been discussion about offering additional support.) Always perform remotely

Optional Sub-Task 7: How many monitors, and at what rate? (Document alludes to four weeks total, but number of monitors impacts travel and per diem and lodging.) Monitors will be funded $400 per day for providing monitoring services, and shall also receive lodging, per diem, and mileage. For each project, NAC will be funded $4,000 plus travel and per diem for 3 one-day visits (the first, middle, and last day of the project) to the project site. Up to seven projects.

Optional Sub-Task 7: Are NAC monitor days in addition to tribal monitor days or included as tribal monitor days for Optional Sub-task 7?

NAC is additional.

TASK 2: NAFB NAGPRA STUDY (RKMF177301)

Does NAFB have an idea of an upper limit on tribal representatives—the SOW suggests “at least 5”? If not, there is a question concerning the 14 days total for analyzing the Nevada State Museum (NSM) NAGPRA collections: If all 16 tribes want to send a representative to analyze the collections, there will be more tribes than days designated for visiting. The tribes will either need to be 1) staggered—necessitating split days—if they want to analyze individually; or 2) tribes can be paired or come in small groups. There will also need to be time before the start of the 14 days for the NFE and CRM to analyze the collections (I would suggest adding one extra day, bringing the total to 15). If all 16 tribes decide to send representatives, does NAFB have a preference for scheduling tribes individually or in groups? If tribes have to be paired off, would it be better to group Northern Paiute with other Northern Paiute?

4 cultural groups + NAC (minimum of 5) the variance consists of rotating members, half days due to tribes being located in remote areas. Scheduling will be coordinated with the NAC.

Will the tribal representatives need lodging, per diem, and honoraria when analyzing the NAGPRA collections? (This funding is mentioned only for 5.1.3).

Most tribes will need lodging, per diem, and honoraria.

The NSM appears to have 2 branches, and the spring 2017 NAFB Native American Program 21st Semiannual Meeting Summary Report mentions the artifacts identified under NAGPRA are in Carson City, and “the intent is to bring these items back to Las Vegas for curation at the National History Museum to make them more accessible for NAGPRA consultation.” Has this happened yet or will the artifact inspection/consultation take place at the NSM facility in Carson City? This should be completed before this task is executed.

Will the NAC need payments separate from the $25,000 fee offered for Task Three – Consultation? Yes

TASK 3: ROCK ART STUDY (RKXF17041)

Will a records search and/or site records be provided by NAFB for the locations of the designated sites and surrounding areas (necessary to conduct survey and place sites in cultural context). Yes. Provided at kick-off meeting.

For the archaeological site recording, will it be necessary to record historical Euro-American remains at the locations of prehistoric/Native American rock art sites? Yes.

Site records available on-line through the NVCRIS do not document the presence of rock art at 26LN4143 (historic can scatter) and 26LN4144 (Silver Pick Mine). Are these site trinomials and records correct, or is other data available concerning rock art at these two sites? The NFE needs to verify this.

It’s part of the task. Site visit should occur for ground truth.

Similarly, 26Ny11497 is stated to be a pecked stone seat and focus hole, with no associated art or artifacts. Is additional information available on this site and/or is it to be included? Part of task. Updated site record performed.

No site records are available on-line for 26Ck5318, 26Ck6044, 26Ln847, 26Ln3094, 26Ln3097, 26Ny12531, 16Ny13246, 26Ny13247, 26Ny13296, S4-1 and the Kawich Range site. Can these be provided? Yes.

Are there specific data collection standards (e.g., # or resolution of photos, etc.) or site forms (other than IMACs) that must be followed or used for site context recording? Recommend using D-stretch software for photo enhancement.

We assume that Nellis has ESRI ArcGIS software. Is there an existing or preferred Nellis database/software program that must be used for the GIS/digital interface (e.g., ESRI Collector, GeoJot+, Mappt, Access, or Extensis Portfolio)? NAFB has ArcGIS. Only interface that has been used is Access.

TASK 4: BLACK MOUNTAIN/THIRSTY CANYON PROJECT WORK (RKX170414) AND

TASK 5: SPRINGS AND SEEPS STUDY (RKFX170412)

General questions

Will we be revisiting any of the “compliance surveys and inventories” that have been previously done for the installations/training areas? Yes. Section 110 study.

Objectives:

What other “applicable federal, state and local laws/regulations and related DoD and AF directives” are we supposed to provide support for? 36 CFR Parts 60 and 800.

Deliverables:

Report(s)? Final report? Are we supposed to write and provide one? Or are we only supposed to finish the 2006 unfinished report? Updating Existing Report. Current report is lacking GIS data, photos, etc.

Acreage coverage:

Page 5: Reference is made to “completion of archaeological survey of 200 acres of lands distributed across the North and South NTTR” but elsewhere the acreage figure is given as 575 acres (e.g., on pg.

18). Can we assume that 575 acres is the correct figure? 1200 acres for Black Mtn task. 575 acres for springs task.

Cultural material:

Are we to collect or not to collect artifacts as part of the re-recording and survey of spring and seep areas. No, not unless Air Force thinks it may be damaged. The NFE needs to obtain consent from tribes.

If collecting: what are the curation standards/protocols for this project? Analysis? Follow regulation 36

CFR 79.

Specific questions for Task 4

It says “no fieldwork required” is this correct? It will be required to collect GIS data.

Task 4. Section 7.1.1:

Data format: Is it digital, or should we plan a visit to collect hard copies of forms to be used for updating GIS database and IMACS. Digital. (online through BLM).

GIS data: what is the latest GIS data format? ESRI? Year? ArcMap latest version? ArcMap 10.

Can you clarify the two options you refer to from the IMACS site records (pg. 19)? The NFE needs to create the form because it didn’t exist before.

Task 4. Section 7.1.2:

What is meant by "updated GIS shapefiles for all survey areas"? Are we editing/updating/compiling all GIS data to date? How much data is this? This is important to know to understand how much time and budgeting we need for this work. Compiling all of the data. Re-mapping/ ground truth areas may be required.

How old are the GPS data files and what is the format? SSF? Trimble? Etc.? This will be important to know for conversion of data into a GIS shapefile format. NAFB only has pdfs of maps. These may be used by the NFE to georeference and create shapefiles. These will need to be ground truth.

Task 4. Section 7.1.13:

Should we consider site relocations and visits for improved site recording in order to prepare IMACS for NV SHPO for those sites that have been minimally recorded? Yes.

Specific questions for Task 5

Can you provide maps (USGS Quad Sheets) showing the precise locations of all springs and seeps that are part of this study (i.e., similar to the maps provided for the rock art site locations)? NAFB will provide shapefiles.

Are there GIS layers of target locations to survey (springs and ephemeral seeps)? Could we access this information to get an idea on acreage and logistics for conducting survey, such as accessibility and spread of the target locations. There are shapefiles of springs and seeps. These will be provided by

NAFB.

What is the maximum number of cultural monitors that we should budget for/expect to hire? Page 20.

Section 8.2 states “at least 4 tribal members will be included”. Can we assume, for budgetary purposes, that our upper limit will be four tribal monitors? 1 per crew of archaeologists (2 total).

Survey requirements: what is the expected transect spacing for archaeological survey? What are the minimum requirements for this? We would like to know in order to budget for the right amount of archaeological field technicians. General guidelines. 30 meters spacing is standard. This survey will require tighter spacing due to total acreage amount being smaller (15 meter spacing) (575 acres)