Black Creek Trail Restoration Project - De Soto RD - MS

The Department of Agriculture Forest Service seeks restoration of approximately 29 miles of the non-wilderness portion of the Black Creek Trail in De Soto National Forest, Mississippi, to standard hiking trail width of 60 inches using mechanical and manual methods, with proposals due August 7, 2026, and questions due July 22, 2026. This is a 100% small business set-aside. The solicitation has been amended as of July 31, 2026, to add C05a Black Creek Trail .kmz files and a C05b Questions document.

Place of performance is Wiggins, Mississippi. Period of performance runs October 5, 2026, through December 30, 2026. The NAICS code is 115310, Support Activities for Forestry; PSC code is F006, Natural Resources/Conservation—Land Treatment Practices.

The Performance Work Statement specifies restoration to 60-inch trail width with 5–6 feet vertical overhead clearance, removal of encroaching brush, hazardous snags, felled trees, and debris from tropical storm damage, and smoothing of disturbed trail surfaces. Work requires skid steers equipped with forestry mulchers (preferred), buckets, and grapples, supported by trail UTVs and manual tools. Performance metrics include 95% acceptable quality level for trail width clearance via random measurement, zero hazardous overhanging branches, 100% debris and hazard removal, ruts no deeper than 3 inches, 100% PPE compliance with enclosed cabs and reinforced glass, and no more than 3 days behind scheduled milestones. Contractors must assign an English-speaking Project Manager as primary liaison. Non-conformance corrections must be completed within 48 hours; safety deviations trigger immediate work stoppage. Service contract labor standards apply. The trail is open to the public during restoration; no government site visit is scheduled but offerors are encouraged to visit.

Award goes to the lowest priced technically acceptable offer with acceptable or neutral past performance. Only the lowest priced offer is initially evaluated for technical acceptability; if unacceptable, evaluation proceeds in descending price order until an acceptable offer is identified. Evaluation factors are price (completed SF 1449), technical proposal, and past performance. This is a firm fixed price purchase order, new requirement with no incumbent.