Health evaluations of desert tortoises

The U.S. Geological Survey has a requirement for services to conduct Health Evaluations on the Desert Tortoise with expertise in collecting data on health and mortality of juvenile desert tortoises, fitting the juveniles with radio-transmitters, tracking the juveniles when released from head-start pens housed at Edwards AFB and other related tasks. Study site locations at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) and other study areas in the Mojave Desert associated with the EAFB project. The contractor field supervisor must be qualified to conduct this work, handle tortoises, and shell-skeletal remains and be on applicable Federal and State permits for the desert tortoise. Field persons handling desert tortoises must also be named on both permits. This is an essential legal requirement for this work. Period of Performance: 09/30/2013 through 02/28/2014. Competitive procedures in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items, will be utilized. This competition is small business set-aside under the NAICS code 541620 Environment Consulting Services, with a size standard of $14.0M. It is anticipated that the Request for Quote G13PS00664 will be posted to this site on or about 08/13/2013 with quotes due on or about 08/20/2013. All responsible sources may submit a quote which will be considered. THIS REQUIREMENT IS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.