Recovery**- East Lost Squirrel Stewardship - Payette NF

The USDA Forest Service, Payette National Forest, intends to acquire by contract the following services: East Lost Squirrel Stewardship. Description of Work The East Lost Squirrel Project is located on the New Meadows Ranger District of the Payette National Forest encompassing the area indicated on the Contract Area Maps (which includes Timber Removal Map) to the southwest of New Meadows. The purpose of this project is to use commercial timber harvest, non-commercial thinning, and prescribed burning to restore northern Idaho ground squirrel (NIDGS) habitat and forest structure, and to move fire frequency toward historic natural fire regime conditions. NIDGS habitat would be restored by reducing conifer encroachment and densities, rejuvenating dry meadow communities, and creating potential dispersal corridors between occupied and unoccupied habitat.



Commercial thinning on 347 acres will be used to generate value to offset some of the service work. The contractor will be required to remove this material in log form and haul it to a mill for processing. There is approximately 3,805 TONS of sawlog material and an estimated 2,940 TONS of biomass material.



All resulting slash not needed for Coarse Woody Debris and rehabbing skid trails will be chipped and removed from site.



Project Location The project is located on the New Meadows Ranger District. The legal description for the project is: T19N, R1W, Sections 4, 8, 9, and 17; T20N, R1W, Section 2, 28, and 33, Boise Meridian, Adams County, Idaho. The project lies approximately 10 miles west of New Meadows Idaho.



The Forest Service intends to issue a solicitation for this project utilizing FAR Part 12 procedures for commercial contracting and FAR Part 15 for contracting by negotiation. This acquisition is available for full and open competition amongst all responsible offerors. A single firm-fixed price type contract will be awarded to the responsible offeror (IAW FAR Part 9, Contractor Qualifications) whose offer is of the best value based upon the evaluation factors provided in the solicitation.



Resulting Contract Any resultant contract will be a Construction contract with provisions for timber removal. This solicitation will be available on or about March 22, 2010. The period of performance for this project is (approx) 3 years from the date of contract award, which is anticipated to be on or about May 15, 2010. It is anticipated that work will begin on this effort on or about 15 August 2010.



All responsible sources may submit an offer which will be considered by the government. In accordance with FAR 4.1102(a), prospective contractors must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database prior to award of a contract. Lack of registration in the CCR on the part of the bidder will render a bidder ineligible for award. Bidders may obtain information on registration and annual confirmation requirements by calling 888-227-2423, or via the Internet at http://www.ccr.gov//.