Land Cover Survey, Mapping and Analysis of High Resolution Imagery

This is a notice of intent to sole source a commercial item (FAR Authority: 6302-1 Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements), The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this acquisition is 541370. It is a small business set aside procurement.

The USDA, Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Eastern Oregon Agriculture Research Center in the ARS Pacific West Area (PWA) located at 67826-A HWY. 205, Burns, OR 97720-9803 intends to sole source Land Cover Survey, Mapping and Analysis of High Resolution Imagery to Open Range Consulting, Inc. (a Small Business).

Service Requirements:
Collection of remotely-sensed data used to stratify vegetation and ground cover attributes (collectively, "functional groups") at specific resolutions over 50,000 acres of range-land in Harney County, OR (Figure 1).  Mapping areas include the ARS-administered Northern Great Basin Experimental Range (16,000 acres), and approximately 34,000 acres of nearby range-land administered by the Department of State Lands.  These data will be used to test relationships between land management practices and functional group cover at large spatial scales.  We will also test the utility of these data for classifying vegetation states important as habitat to greater sage-grouse.  Functional group mapping must follow very specific techniques that we wish to test the utility of, relative to other methodologies used to collect similar data. For more information see the Statement of Work (SOW) in the attached document package.

Sole Source Justification:
For details, please see sole source justification in the attached document package.

All interested parties are encouraged to provide information on their capabilities to meet this requirement. In order to be considered a potential source, interested parties must submit clear and convincing documentation demonstrating the capabilities to satisfy the requirement specified above and advantages of the Government to consider another source. The documentation must include prices and descriptive literature containing sufficient technical documentation to establish a bona fide capability to meet this requirement. Only written responses will be considered and should be sent via
e-mail to the below address:

Vinay Kaul
Supervisory Contract Specialist
E-Mail: vinay.kaul@ars.usda.gov

All responses from responsible sources will be fully considered. As a result of analyzing responses to this synopsis, the contracting officer may determine that a solicitation will be issued. If a solicitation is issued, no additional synopsis will be published. Any such solicitation will be issued to the intended GSA schedule vendors and all firms that respond to this synopsis. If no affirmative written response is received by 1630 PST, Monday August 10, 2015, an award will be pursued with the company mentioned above.

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