SOW_BIA-ENA-BNR_Rangeland_Vegetative_Inventory.pdf

Statement of Work - Rangeland Vegetation Inventory

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Eastern Navajo Agency

1.0 Purpose and Objectives

1.1 The purpose and objective is to complete a rangeland vegetation inventory and report for the Bureau of Indian

Affairs, Eastern Navajo Agency (BIA). The BIA will use the latest data to update carrying capacity and stocking rate for the 2025 grazing permit renewal.

1.2 Pursuant to 25 CFR 166.305 and 166.306, BIA must establish total grazing capacity for each range unit and adjust grazing capacity relative to the ecology of the unit. BIA manages grazing permit and leasing for tribal trust and individual Indian Allotments lands within Eastern Navajo Agency compliant with 25 CFR 166 and other pertinent regulations.

1.3 The rangeland vegetation inventory and report will be used to support federal decisions relative to carrying capacity adjustments, season(s) of use, class of livestock, impacts from unauthorized livestock and indiscriminate developments. The information will assist producers to acquire the best economic return and make management decisions, to use the information to participate in government incentive programs and/or implement range improvements, and for the Navajo Nation to make well-informed decisions on livestock grazing and range management.

1.4 According to the American Indian Agricultural Resource Management Act (AIARMA), 1994 (as amended);

25 CFR § 166.311 and 25 CFR § 166.312, …. It is critical to detect changes in the rangeland early enough to make necessary adjustments in grazing management to sustain range health. …. With updated information, decisions on grazing permitting and leasing could be validated and issued.

2.0 Background

2.1 Eastern Navajo Agency consists of about 3,363,519 acres (Chapter Images 2004) and about 1,479,405 acres categorized as rangelands (Rangeland Monitoring Plan and Report, March 2020). The Agency is divided into six

(6) Land Management Districts (District) 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 22. It is mostly located within the San Juan Basin as part of the Navajo section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province, New Mexico Major Land Resource

Area and a small portion of the Southwest Plateaus, Mesas, and Foothills. The San Juan Basin is a structural depression containing deep Tertiary fill resting on rocks of late Cretaceous Age. The Southwest Plateaus, Mesas, and Foothills are characterized by generally horizontal beds of Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary sedimentary rocks.

2.2 District 15 consists of about 189,050 acres of tribal trust lands located on the Navajo Reservation that encompasses three (3) grazing communities and 61 range units, located in McKinley and San Juan counties. The elevation ranges from 5,620 to 7,660 feet. The physiographic features of valleys, flood plains, rugged canyons and rock outcrop; dominated by sandy, loam uplands, shale hills, clay loam terraces, sandy bottomlands, and sandstone upland ecological sites that support various plant communities of grassland prairies that bond to shrubland and pinon-juniper woodland into an evergreen coniferous forest.

2.3 District 16 consists of approximately 712,503 acres of which roughly 511,626 acres is individual Indian allotments and tribal trust lands. District 16 encompasses 14 grazing communities with 260 range units and is located in Cibola and McKinley counties. This area contains clayey, loamy, salty bottomland, sand plains, sandy, shallow savannah and swale ecological sites that support plant communities of mixed shrub-grassland (sagebrush and greasewood), pinyon-juniper woodland and an evergreen coniferous forest.

2.4 District 19 consists of approximately 506,580 acres of which roughly 290,267 acres are individual Indian allotments and tribal trust lands. It encompasses 12 grazing communities with 147 range units located in San Juan

County. This area contains rock outcrop, clayey hills and slopes, clayey, deep sand, cobbly hills, loamy, limy, salt flats, loam bottom, gravelly loamy, shallow upland, badlands and dune lands ecological sites. The plant communities include mixture of forbs, grassland prairies, shrubland hills, and pinyon-juniper woodland mesas.

2.5 District 20 consists of approximately 620,718 acres of which roughly 463,785 acres are individual Indian allotments and tribal trust lands. It encompasses 9 grazing communities with 359 range units. This area contains deep uplands, bottoms and flats, shallow uplands, rock outcrop, badland, gravelly slopes, and woodland. The area is associated with arroyos, washes and extensive abrupt long and short deep canyon.

2.6 Districts 21 (Canoncito) consists of about 76,896 acres of which roughly 72,203 acres is individual Indian allotment and tribal trust lands located in parts of Bernalillo, Cibola and Sandoval Counties. District 22 (Alamo) consists of about 62,636 of which roughly 59,041 acres of trust lands situated in Socorro County. The ecological sites include barren, bottomland, clayey bottomland, clayey, deep sand, foothills, gravelly hills, loamy, rock outcrop, salty bottomland, sandy slopes, sandy, savannah, shale hills and salt flats.

2.7 The BIA completed rangeland vegetation inventories between 2004 to 2019. Vegetation attributes measured included: biomass production, ground cover, species frequency, and composition; determined stocking rate, carrying capacity using available forage; and similarity to the historic climax plant community to determine trend.

This information was used to adjust carrying capacity and renew grazing permits in 2014.

2.8 Access to Project Area. For the most part the project area is easily accessible and well-complimented with roads; local maintained paved and unpaved roads include BIA/Navajo Routes, State Highway 264, 371, 491, 550, and Interstate 40. From east to west, Interstate 40 transcends across District 16 with BIA/Navajo Routes and State of New Mexico Roads connect to the interstate from different locations. There are numerous unimproved roads and trails. There are areas that may require the use of horses or other type of transportation to accommodate access to remote sites. The project area is extensively fenced. Locked gates could limit accessibility.

2.9 Climate. The area has mild temperatures in the summer being in the mid 80’s with occasional strong occurrences of thunderstorms in the afternoon with isolated thunder cell activity which can be violent for short durations of time. These may result in heavy lightning and downpours with high velocity winds. Although the winters can be cold with snows from a historic perspective, but in most recent times the winters have been mild with very few days of freeze. The area is associated with 6-8 inches of precipitation annually but could be much less.

3.0 Project Area and Need for the Work

3.1 The project area is predominantly within the Northwest Quadrant of New Mexico Principal Meridian and will only include tribal trust and individual Indian allotment lands with approximately 1,619,153 acres and about 873 study plots. An individual range unit may consist of tribal trust, individual Indian allotment, BLM public land, New

Mexico State land, tribal fee land, and/or Public Land Order land.

4.0 Personnel and Professional Qualification

4.1 The Contractor shall have staff and/or sub-contractors available for this project with educational backgrounds and experience in the fields of range science, range ecology, plant biology, botany, or any of the ecological sciences, range management, geographical information system, and statistical analysis. Field personnel shall have land navigational skills and be able to accurately perform tedious task in isolated areas. All bidders will submit a statement of professional qualifications, including previous consulting assignments. For quality assurance, personnel selected will remain part of the contract and no person will switch out with another.

5.0 Scope of Work

5.1 Use previous rangeland vegetation inventory data to identify ecological site descriptions based on soil and plant community; delineate general vegetation types and compare vegetation boundaries, correct any discrepancies, where necessary.

5.2 Conduct a reconnaissance field survey to identify different vegetation types, document plant species, descriptions of topography, and aspect and slope.

5.3 Apply the harvest plots or double sampling method to collect vegetation production.

5.4 Collect and measure vegetation attributes for cover (basal and foliar) of all major herbaceous plant species

(shrubs and trees), composition, frequency, density, utilization, rangeland health and photograph each transect.

5.5 Determine the number of plots, plot size, type of sampling unit (lines or points), and shape; randomly mark and GPS coordinates in UTM, using projection coordinates of NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_12N.

5.6 Apply a statistical criterion to include the following:

5.6.1 Efficient sampling plan, reduction in unnecessary data collection.

5.6.2 Reduction of data that estimates the results of a sample vegetation attribute that may include the mean or variance.

5.6.3 Examination of significance, such as the vegetation type to the population mean; and

5.6.4 Identification of applicability for different scenarios.

5.7 The analysis will include the results and comparison to the past range vegetation inventories, the grazing resources and impacts, drought, the current carrying capacity and stocking rate for each class of livestock (goats, sheep, and cattle), and season(s) of use.

5.8 Calculate stocking rates and carrying capacity at the District, Grazing Community, and range unit levels.

Include acreages for the whole range unit, which would include other land tracts.

5.9 Determine stocking rates and carrying capacity for sheep, goats, and cattle for each ecological site based on slope and forage value and vegetation production. Adjust for slope and correct data to remove all non-grazeable areas.

6.0 The Contractor shall:

6.1 Provide all equipment, material and supplies, and labor to conduct and complete the work.

6.2 Use the materials and supplies most effective and easily transferrable; and provide and document the common names along with scientific names of all plant species present.

6.3 Provide the results data collection, calculations, statistical analysis, and evaluation and interpretation with the ten-year precipitation.

6.4 Provide a GIS layer with stocking rate and carrying capacity information for each vegetation unit by District, Grazing Community, and range unit.

6.5 Use the results from calculations to generate maps and tables in the report. Develop table for each District, Grazing Community and range unit showing three specific categories of data: Total acres of each slope class, stocking rate and carrying capacity for cattle, sheep, and goats.

6.6 Provide a Summary of the non-grazeable acres.

7.0 Contract Time Requirements, Monthly Progress Reporting and Payments:

7.1 The Contractor shall have 270 calendar days (after the notice-to-proceed) to complete the project. Any request for time extensions shall be done timely (at least 30 calendar days in advance of the deadlines) and with clear and detailed justification for consideration by the government.

7.2 Progress (Status) Reports shall be submitted no later than 30 days after the notice-to-proceed and then subsequently at the end of each month. The Report shall include the following:

7.2.1 All invoices for payment covering the period and the sum of the previous payments.

7.2.2 Any problems encountered in performing the work with recommendations for corrective action.

7.2.3 An estimated percentage of completion for all work including work completed in the current month.

7.2.4 Number of transects completed, note the District, grazing community, and range unit (if applicable) within the invoice period.

7.3 Submit proper invoices for payments to Invoice Processing Platform (IPP).

7.4 Submit copies of the invoices, at least 7 days prior to the original invoices, and progress report to the

Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for review, acceptability, and processing.

8.0 Government Furnished Materials, Services, And Equipment

8.1 Digital maps (or shape files) of the project area, such as, the Districts, Grazing Communities, and range unit boundaries; and land ownership showing the location of the individual Indian allotments and tribal trust lands.

8.2 District 15 Rangeland Inventory 2010

8.3 Eastern Navajo Agency Range Inventory Report District 16 2007

8.4 Land Management District 19 – 2013 Vegetation Inventory

8.5 Land Management District 20 Recommended Stocking Rates 2013

8.6 Rangeland Monitoring Plan and Report Eastern Navajo Agency March 2020

9.0 References:

9.1 Soil Surveys: McKinley County (NM 692, 06/30/04) San Juan County Eastern Part (NM 618, 12/21/04), Cabezon Area (NM 606, 09/05/03), Shiprock Area (NM 717, 05/09/05), and Sandoval County (NM 656)

9.2 Web Soil Survey

10.0 Deliverables, the Contractor shall:

10.1 Provide a draft rangeland vegetation inventory report 30 days before the end of performance period for review and comment. The BIA shall review and comment on the draft report within 15 days. The final report shall be delivered by close of business five (5) days before the end of the performance period.

10.2 Provide five (5) hard and digital copies of the Rangeland Inventory Report separately by Districts 15, 16, 19, 20, and combine 21 and 22.

10.3 Full explanation and description of the location of study plots with photos in hard copies and GIS by District, Grazing Community, and range units (if appropriate).

10.4 Provide the final report in its entirety in a digital format utilizing the most current version of MS Word and

Excel with any photographic inclusions presented in a JPG format. All maps shall be shape-files compatible with

ESRI ArcMap 10.4 (ArcInfo) geo data base formats with the appropriate attribute tables and data configured to the coordinate system UTM, Zone 12N as applicable and a datum of NAD 1983 (Conus) with coordinate units and altitude units in meters. All ArcGIS data submitted must include metadata with full documentation required as viewed in ArcCatalog. Ten (10) copies of the digitized format shall be provided on flash drives with each flash drive displaying the proper and appropriate labels identifying the manuscript with a protective case.

10.5 Have all tables, maps or forms bound within the report.

10.6 Coordinate with the BIA to finalize the format for the outline and what to include in the Rangeland Vegetation

Inventory Report, a sample outline is in the Appendix. This outline may not be all inclusive or some subjects may not be appropriate for the draft and final report.

11.0 Project Schedule and Coordination

11.1 The Contractor shall provide a draft project schedule within seven (7) calendar days after the notice-to-proceed.

11.2 The Contractor shall submit the final project schedule no later than five (5) working days after receiving the comments.

11.3 The Contractor shall be responsible for updating the final project schedule on a quarterly basis to reflect changes to the final project schedule.

11.4 The Contracting Officer (CO) shall approve any request for an extension of the project or modification deemed necessary to complete the project.

12.0 Communication and Coordination

12.1 The Contractor shall maintain a strong communication and coordination with the COTR as it relates to issues and to address any access issue to tribal trust and individual Indian allotment lands to access the study plots; the

COTR will contact the local Land Board representative and/or the local Chapter.

12.2 The Contractor shall post public notices and radio announcements at all the Eastern Navajo Agency Chapter

Houses on the rangeland vegetation inventory work.

13.0 Coordination Meetings

13.1 The Contractor shall attend a pre-work meeting scheduled by the CO.

13.2 The Contractor shall conduct monthly progress teleconferences to provide an update on all work activities and to address issues or concerns.

14.0 Appendix

14.1 Legal Land Description

14.2 Rangeland Inventory Outline

14.3 Project Area Map

15.0 Legal Land Description (Township and Range) by District: Only the tribal trust and individual Indian allotment lands are included in the scope of this work:

District 15

Township Range Township Range Township Range Township Range T17N R14W T18N R15W T20N R15W T22N R15W T17N R15W T19N R14W T21N R14W T23N R14W T17N R16W T19N R15W T21N R15W T23N R15W T18N R14W T20N R14W T22N R14W

District 16

T11N R18W T13N R18W T15N R10W T16N R14W T11N R19W T13N R19W T15N R11W T16N R15W T11N R20W T13N R20W T15N R12W T16N R16W T11N R21W T13N R21W T15N R14W T16N R17W T12N R12W T14N R10W T15N R15W T16N R18W T12N R18W T14N R11W T15N R16W T16N R19W T12N R19W T14N R12W T15N R17W T16N R20W T12N R20W T14N R13W T15N R18W T17N R13W T12N R21W T14N R14W T15N R19W T17N R14W T13N R9W T14N R17W T15N R20W T17N R15W T13N R10W T14N R18W T15N R21W T17N R16W T13N R11W T14N R19W T16N R11W T17N R17W T13N R12W T14N R20W T16N R12W T17N R18W T13N R17W T14N R21W T16N R13W T17N R19W

District 19

T23N R10W T24N R13W T25N R13W T27N R12W T23N R11W T25N R8W T26N R8W T27N R13W T23N R13W T25N R9W T26N R11W T28N R12W T24N R10W T25N R10W T26N R12W T28N R13W T24N R11W T25N R11W T26N R13W T29N R13W T24N R12W T25N R12W T27N R11W T30N R16W

District 20

T15N R10W T17N R12W T19N R3W T20N R7W T15N R11W T17N R13W T19N R4W T20N R8W T16N R10W T18N R3W T19N R5W T20N R12W T16N R11W T18N R4W T19N R6W T20N R13W T16N R12W T18N R5W T19N R7W T21N R7W T17N R4W T18N R6W T19N R8W T21N R8W T17N R5W T18N R7W T19N R9W T21N R12W T17N R6W T18N R8W T19N R12W T21N R13W T17N R8W T18N R9W T19N R13W T22N R11W T17N R9W T18N R12W T20N R4W T22N R12W T17N R11W T18N R13W T20N R5W T22N R13W T20N R6W T23N R13W

District Community Township Range District Community Township Range 21 Canoncito T9N R1W 22 Alamo T1N R6W T9N R3W T2N R5W

T10N R1W

T2N R6W T10N R2W

T2N R7W

T10N R3W

T3N R6W T11N R2W

T3N R7W

T11N R3W

T12N R3W