SOW Facilitation Services_SFNF Final.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

Advancing Sustainable Recreation on the Santa Fe National Forest through

Place-Based Community Collaboration

Santa Fe National Forest

Scope of Work:

Santa Fe National Forest

1) Engage stakeholders (partners, organizations, agencies, local governments, individuals) to develop Place-Based Collaboratives focused on improving and expanding sustainable recreation opportunities on the Santa Fe National Forest and neighboring public lands with measurable benefits.

2) Use collaborative Values, Visioning, Communication, and Problem Identification/Solving techniques to identify and resolve immediate and pressing recreation conflicts occurring within the Wildland Urban Interface with measurable results.

Sustainable Recreation on public lands is a valuable opportunity that positively contributes to healthy lifestyles and local economies. Furthermore, it encourages present and future generations to actively participate in recreation planning, recreation management, project implementation, sharing ideas, exploring values, and partnering and volunteering. The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) desires to improve the delivery of Sustainable Recreation opportunities across the Forest by: 1) strengthening existing relationships and building new relationships with the communities and the stakeholders it serves; 2) encouraging communities and stakeholders to help envision, strategize and prioritize programs and projects within SFNF’s Recreation Program; 3) encouraging communities and stakeholders to be engaged and participate in a shared leadership approach to solving recreation and natural resource challenges, implementing the Sustainable Recreation Plan for the SFNF, and continually improving recreation opportunities across the Forest for the benefit of all, and 4) encouraging partnerships and volunteerism to accomplish recreation projects on the ground. One way of improving the delivery of recreation opportunities and accomplishing these four ideas is by developing Place-Based Sustainable Recreation Collaboratives within the communities served by the Santa Fe National Forest.

It is expected that each collaborative will, at a minimum be comprised of a Leadership Team and a Coordinating Team. Members of the Leadership Team are individuals who can make formal decisions and enter formal agreements for their respective organizations. The Coordinating Team is composed of staff, advisors, managers and others who have strong influence over the decision making process. The facilitators are part of the Coordinating Team. Additionally, the collaboratives shall be inclusive and focused on coordinated and collective action. This will be accomplished through proactive dialog, exploration of values and assumptions, understanding of historical perspectives and contexts, increasing partnership capacity and volunteerism, developing positive land ethics, and providing recreation opportunities that can be managed with available resources.

Individual collaboratives are comprised of the necessary citizens, organizations, agencies, and local governments working together to enhance recreation opportunities and their associated social and economic benefits while minimizing or mitigating adverse recreation impacts to ecosystems, water quality, and natural and cultural resources. These Place-Based collaboratives are intended emphasize well-managed recreation opportunities, education, stewardship, and practices and behaviors that sustainably connect people to the public lands in the present and future.

Contractor shall work in teams of two including one Senior Facilitator and one Junior Facilitator and be able to build rapport with Arizona Stakeholders quickly.

Contractor will coordinate an existing, functional collaborative: the Jemez Mountains Collaborative located in the Cuba-Jemez Zone of the Santa Fe National Forest and based in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. The Contractor will facilitate and coordinate the inception of a new collaborative focused on the implementation of the Sustainable Recreation Plan in the Arroyo Hondo Watershed located in the Pecos-Las Vegas Ranger District on the Santa Fe National Forest, which is an immediate and pressing conflict area. This conflict area can be described as neighborhood access vs public access through residential neighborhoods including crowding, user-created trails, disrespectful behavior, and user conflicts between OHV, equestrian, biking, and hiking. Additional immediate and pressing conflict areas may be identified and will be discussed strategically with the facilitators at the time of identification; there is no assumption regarding the type and number of recreation topics to be addressed within a collaborative until the process has begun and stakeholders have been engaged.

For each Collaborative, the Contractor will be responsible for developing and managing an effective collaborative structure that includes, at a minimum, a Leadership Group, a Coordinating Group and subject specific Working Group(s), planning internal and public meetings, working group sessions and conference calls, conducting stakeholder interviews/outreach assessments, developing agendas and stakeholder contact information lists, coordinating overall communication with Forest points of contact and stakeholders, delivering detailed meeting notes in draft and final form, interpreting qualitative data, developing collaborative governance charters and strategy documents related to action items such as project implementation, project prioritization, funding strategies and strategies for building local collaborative capacity for shared leadership and shared resources that will lead to resilient collaborative structures for the long term- such as training members or others locally to serve as working group facilitators.

Contractor shall work in teams of two including one Senior Facilitator and one Junior Facilitator.

The Recreation Program Manager is the Primary Point of Contact for this agreement. The Recreation Program Manager and the Forest Leadership Team, with input from others, will identify each new collaborative and the order in which they are developed. The District Ranger has the responsibility of determining what is appropriate to occur on his/her respective district.

This process is being adapted from the Greater Prescott Trails Planning Process and the Verde Valley’s Verde Front initiative. Any direct experience with those Planning Process will be beneficial.

Location:

Santa Fe National Forest / Forest Wide

Requirements:

Required Qualifications:

• Region 3-based organization

• Provie documentation of successful collaboration projects in Region 3 (Arizona, New Mexico) including references

• Experience in visioning, goal setting, conflict resolution, and catalyzing action oriented results

• Have experience working with the US Forest Service and the Region 3 Sustainable Recreation

Framework.

• Existing rapport with Region 3 and Santa Fe National Forest Stakeholders***

• Specializes in Natural Resource management and planning

• Facilitators have bachelor’s or master’s degree in Natural Resource disciplines such as Wildlife

Biology, Ecology, Outdoor Recreation, Environmental Sciences, etc.

Deliverables:

Collaborative Development: Leadership Group, Coordinating Group, Working Groups

Place-Based Collaborative Charter(s): Each collaborative shall have a Governance Charter that includes topics such as:

• The purpose of the Collaborative

• The scope of the collaborative

• Overarching goals, objectives, and constraints

• Identities of the main stakeholders

• In-scope and out-of-scope items

• Risks or threats to success

• Project benefits

• Funding sources and partner financial commitments

• Budget and spending authority

• Roles and responsibilities

Strategy Document for collaboration capacity building / building local collaborative capacity including shared leadership and shared resources to create resilient collaborative structure for the long term- such as training members or others locally to serve as working group facilitators.

Shared Funding Strategy: Work with collaborative to build a shared funding strategy to cover future costs of facilitation services consistent with the Sustainable Recreation Plan concept.

Outreach Assessment(s): In advance of any new collaborative kick-off meeting, an outreach assessment shall be developed, by interviewing stakeholders to identify individual stakeholder positions, opinions and ideas that they identify as opportunities or challenges to the collaborative process.

Contact List: Facilitators will develop and maintain a contact list of stakeholders, collaborative members, and interested public individuals including name, phone number and email address and, if applicable, professional affiliation, club/organization affiliation, and subject area of interest.

Draft and final meeting notes from all meetings, working groups, and planning/coordination phone calls.

Project Website(s): Develop and maintain simple, effective and neutral websites for each Place- Based Collaborative to share notes, maps, and other pertinent information related to planning and implementation efforts. Each website shall be updated quarterly.

Contractor Furnished:

Meeting Supplies (i.e. Sticky notes, name tags, flip charts and paper, markers, tape, easels)

Government Furnished:

Maps, projectors, printing, meeting space

Period of Performance:

September 5, 2024 – September 4, 2025 With four (4) option years