SOW_WRFO_2024_CRI.pdf

140L3724Q0023

Statement of Work

CULTURAL RESOURCE INVENTORY

White River Field Office 2024 Fuels Treatment CRI In Northwest Colorado

1.0 General: Furnish labor and equipment to complete Class III archaeological inventories.

1.1 Introduction

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) White River Field Office (WRFO) proposes to conduct vegetation treatment projects on 55 units ranging from 1 to 600 acres in Rio Blanco County. These areas feature sagebrush with varying densities of encroaching young juniper and pinyon pine. Mastication and / or hand thin, pile, and burn in these regions would remove encroaching pinyon-juniper forests as well as decadent sage stands. On-the-ground treatments would begin to take place in the summer of 2025.

1.2 Project Description

The BLM WRFO plans to conduct mechanical treatments on private and BLM-administered lands and requires Class III cultural resource inventory on approximately 5,006 acres. Survey shall include a 100% pedestrian inventory at transect intervals spaced between 15 - 20 meters, to identify, record, and evaluate all cultural resources greater than 50 years old. All previously recorded Eligible, Needs Data, and

Unevaluated sites in the inventory area shall be re-visited. The contractor will need to fully document a previously identified but un-recorded site within the Barnes Ridge project area. Linear resources will require new segment documentation within the Cox project area. Two previously identified sites

(5RB.4691 and 5RB.4988) will need to be re-visited within the Pinto Mesa Mastication project area. New

OAHP (Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation) management data and component forms shall be completed for newly recorded sites as well as sites previously recorded on old versions of site forms;

BLM Linear Management Data and/or BLM Linear Segment Forms shall be used for documenting all linear resources. The definition of a site and isolated find shall follow the field office standards and procedures. The contractor shall confirm the definitions with the Project Inspector.

Prior to fieldwork the contractor will be responsible for contacting the NWDFA archaeologist to discuss procedures for completing the pre-fieldwork records search, survey requirements, and report requirements, including the pre-field files search with the WRFO and the OAHP Compass database.

Inventory will involve block surveys on multiple locations in the Piceance Basin, and one location in the

Rangely Basin near Rio Blanco County Road 27 (See Attached maps).

No contract modifications shall be provided for unanticipated site density or logistic complexity not considered by the contractor in their bid. Known sites in the vicinity of the survey area include a low to moderate density of open lithic scatters, open camps, and historic refuse scatters. Small portions of the project area may include mature pinyon-juniper forests, which could feature wikiups or brush fences.

Note that the contractor should not assume that this overview is anything more than an informed projection of the project area.

Table 1. Project Timeframes

Task/Dates Description Acres

Task 1: Centerfield mastication project in the Piceance Basin. Up to 120

Task 2: Magnolia Bench mastication project in the Piceance Basin. Up to 1,219

Task 3: Brushy Point mastication project in the Rangely Basin. Up to 651

Task 4: Barnes Ridge mastication project in the Piceance Basin. Up to 629

Task 5: Pinto Mesa HFR project in the Piceance Basin. Contractor will need to re-visit two previously recorded sites.

Up to 1,876

Task 6: Cox CRMP project in the Piceance Basin Up to 270

Task 7: Dry Ryan (Phase 4) project in the Piceance Basin Up to 241

1.3 Project Location

-Task 1: The Centerfield mastication project area is located in the White River Field Office in northwest

Colorado in the Piceance Basin (see attached map).

-Task 2: The Magnolia Bench mastication project area is located in the White River Field Office in northwest Colorado near Rio Blanco County Roads 3 and 76 (see attached map).

-Task 3: The Brushy Point mastication project is located in the White River Field Office in Northwest

Colorado near to Rio Blanco County Road 27 (see attached map).

-Task 4: The Barnes Ridge mastication project is located in the White River Field Office in Northwest

Colorado near to Rio Blanco County Road 5 (see attached map).

-Task 5: The Pinto Mesa HFR project is located in the White River Field Office in Northwest Colorado adjacent to Rio Blanco County Road 122 (see attached map).

-Task 6: The Cox CRMP project is located in the White River Field Office in Northwest Colorado near

Rio Blanco County Road 5 (see attached map).

-Task 7: The Dry Ryan (Phase 4) project is located in the White River Field Office in Northwest

Colorado near to Rio Blanco County Road 68 (see attached map).

1.4 Access to Work

Access to the location will be provided by the contractor as their expense. The terrain is fairly flat with slopes of 15% or less, and most areas are accessible by 4WD vehicle and/or ATV/UTV. County roads run near the project areas but can become impassable when wet.

1.5 Work Limits

Offeror must have a valid Colorado consulting archaeological permit or be able to obtain a permit (see attached BLM Handbook for more information). The offeror must also have, or be able to obtain, a

Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation consulting permit prior to conducting work in the field office. In addition, the contractor must also carry a Fieldwork Authorization (FWA) at all times when conducting fieldwork. Please contact the BLM WRFO archaeologist for the FWA after the contract is awarded.

1.6 Selection Criteria

See RFQ

2.0 Federal Specifications

Specifications for cultural surveys are outlined in the attached standards and Procedures/BLM Colorado

Handbook

Equipment

3.0 Government Furnished Items

BLM WRFO will furnish shapefiles of all polygons that require survey.

Any Maps needed by the contractor will be provided by the WRFO.

3.1 Contractor Furnished Items

The contractor will supply all equipment transportation and personnel to complete cultural resource inventories described above

4.0 Deliverables

See Reporting Standards in Section III of the “2021 Procedures and Reporting Standards for Cultural

Resources Consultants Conducting Projects Under A CRUP Permit for The Colorado Northwest District and Grand Junction Field Office, Bureau of Land Management”. The NWDFA archaeologist prefers draft reports and site files to be sent electronically as a PDF document.

Contractors must also follow the BLM Colorado Handbook (revised 2022) and CRUP permit stipulations, including the delivery of geospatial data containing inventory and site shapefiles. The Principal

Investigator and Field Director/Crew Chief must be on the selected contractor’s current CRUP as qualified to do cultural work in the field office. The Field Director/Crew Chief must be present at all times with crews in the field. The contractor shall also follow the specifications for geospatial data, as detailed in the most recent Digital Data Specifications Guide, which may be found on the BLM website or obtained from either the COR or the Project Inspectors.

After the field office receives acceptable site and inventory shapefiles, the field office shall request

Smithsonian numbers for resources and a SHPO document number. Once the SHPO assigns the number

(usually the same or next day), it, and the field office report number, shall be sent back to the contractor to incorporate into the documentation.

Contractors are expected to collect a representative sample of obsidian debitage or tools located during survey, for X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis sourcing, by the contractor (see Section II, F of the 2021

Procedures and Reporting Standards).

Diagnostic artifacts should only be collected if the project could damage, destroy or endanger the artifact.

Diagnostic artifacts shall be either photographed or illustrated as fine line drawings in the report and appropriate OAHP form. All photographs and illustrations shall have an appropriate scale, and documentation of the artifacts shall include measurements of length, width, and thickness. If other artifacts are collected during this project, a table and paragraph discussing the items collected and their associated numbers shall be included with the report as an appendix. All collected artifacts shall be prepared and delivered to the designated curation facility for the field office not later than 180 days after completion of fieldwork. A spreadsheet listing the BLM Project Number, Author, Title, Township/Range, Section, Site Number, Site Type, Eligibility, Artifact Number and Artifact Description shall accompany the artifacts, and a copy of the spreadsheet shall be provided to the field office.

Quality Control: Should the PI conduct quality control assessments and find deficiencies in fieldwork after submittal of the progress report, the contractor will be responsible for correcting these deficiencies at their own cost.

A. Item 1 payment shall be made based on acceptance of a digital letter report in PDF format that describes the results of the Class III inventory. Payment shall total 35% of the contract cost. The letter report is due to the BLM within 10 days after completion of fieldwork, and shall contain at a minimum:

1. A brief description of each site, which shall include site type, temporal or cultural affiliation, and the NRHP eligibility recommendation. This information can be in table format.

2. A draft or field sketch site plan map including standard archaeological site information for each site.

3. A copy of a 7.5' topographic map showing the project inventory boundary and site locations.

The COR’s review of the letter report and verbal notification of acceptance of the results to the contractor within 10 days of receipt constitutes completion of this item of the contract.

B. Item 2 payment shall be made based on the digital submission of a Draft Final Report and draft site forms in Word format, along with inventory and site shapefile data. Payment shall total 35% of the contract cost. This documentation must be submitted to the BLM for review within 120 calendar days after completing the fieldwork.

The BLM shall not accept CDs containing the draft documentation (report and forms) and geospatial data. Instead, the contractor may supply these data on a USB flash drive or arrange for digital transfer via an FTP site or other secure internet location (again pursuant to the most current Digital Data

Specifications Guide).

The Draft Final Report, and all required inventory and site forms, shall meet the guidelines established by the Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation, BLM

Colorado Handbook (revised 2017), OAHP Guidelines, and the field office standards and procedures. The draft documentation shall not be digitally secured or protected. A complete list of the previous inventories and complete site and isolate numbers found during the literature search may be included as a table and summarized in the text.

A description of the APE, including the potential for direct, indirect and cumulative effects, must be included in the report. The draft report shall also evaluate the sites in the APE for National Register eligibility and make a recommendation regarding a Determination of Effect for the undertaking. Those evaluations should be made in the context of previous investigations and findings in the general area, and management issues for the region. All sites determined to be “needs data” shall include a detailed justification for such a determination; the contractor must conduct a shovel or trowel test prior to recommending a site as “Needs Data,” not to exceed the maximum testing allowed per site under the contractor’s CRUP.

The BLM shall provide a written response to the Draft Final Report within 30 days of receipt.

C. Item 3 payment shall be made upon acceptance of the Final Report by BLM. Final payment shall total 30% of the contract cost. Delivery of the Final Report and supporting records is required no later than 180 days after completion of fieldwork. BLM shall notify the contractor of acceptance of the

Final Report within 14 days of receipt which constitutes completion of the contract.

The final report and forms shall respond to the corrections and comments made by WRFO during the review of the Draft Final Report. Additional requirements for the final report and forms are:

• Final payment is contingent upon BLM’s acceptance of the response to the comments and corrections made during the BLM review.

• Cultural resource legal, UTM, or specific narrative descriptions are not to be presented anywhere in the report narrative.

• The report cover page, appendices with legal/UTM locations, and maps with site locations must contain the following statement in large font, bold type “For Official Use Only: Disclosure of site locations prohibited (43 CFR 7.18).”

• One unbound copy of the final report and forms with photographs, maps, and associated documentation are required. The final PDF files of reports and site and isolate forms must follow

SHPO file naming conventions, pursuant to the most current Digital Data Specifications

Guide and shall not be digitally secured or protected.

• BLM shall not accept CDs containing the project documentation (report and forms) and geospatial data. Instead, the contractor may supply these data on a USB flash drive or arrange for digital transfer via an FTP site or other secure internet location (again pursuant to the most current Digital Data Specifications Guide)

• Site and Isolated Find forms MUST NOT be bound with the report narrative.

The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) is (POC info will be supplied after contract award)

Period of Performance: May 1, 2024 to January 31, 2025.

Attachment 1: Centerfield Mastication Vicinity Map

Attachment 2: Magnolia Bench Vicinity Map

Attachment 3: Brushy Point Vicinity Map

Attachment 4: Barnes Ridge Vicinity Map

Attachment 5: Pinto Mesa Vicinity Map

Attachment 6: Cox CRMP Vicinity Map

Attachment 7: Dry Ryan Phase 4 Mastication Vicinity Map

Attachment 8: Northwest District Standards and Procedures

Please contact NWDFA archaeologist for pdf

Attachment 9: BLM Colorado Handbook

Attachment 10: BLM Digital Specifications