SPECIAL NOTICE
B -- B--VFO-SCLEROCACTUS RANGE-WIDE MONITORING
- Notice Date
- 6/4/2021 11:02:36 AM
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- UTAH STATE OFFICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 84101 USA
- ZIP Code
- 84101
- Solicitation Number
- 140L5721Q0032
- Response Due
- 6/18/2021 12:00:00 PM
- Archive Date
- 06/19/2021
- Point of Contact
- Blunt Mayes, Tori, Phone: (435)781-4445
- E-Mail Address
-
tbluntmayes@blm.gov
(tbluntmayes@blm.gov)
- Description
- VFO-SCLEROCACTUS RANGE-WIDE MONITORING The Bureau of Land Management, Green River District, Vernal Field Office, intends to award a firm fixed price, sole-source purchase order to Manzanita Botanical Consulting in Salt Lake City, UT ) collection of field data for eight established Sclerocactus subpopulations monitoring sites, add additional plots at each of the eight subpopulations and establish a new monitoring site within an additional subpopulation during the 2021 field season within Duchesne and Uintah Counties in Utah; and to provide analysis and reporting of the data collected back to the Vernal Field Office. Tasks include: 1. Field monitoring, and data management, will be coordinated with the VFO botanist. 2. An Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 10 project research permit from USFWS is required which is currently held by Manzanita Botanical Consulting. 3. Field monitoring activities comprise pre-field preparations, monitoring of individual plants and site-level disturbance conditions, collection of required attribute data, data management and quality control, data submission and reporting. 4. Seed counts and seed collections will be limited to the new subpopulation in the Lower Green. A small proportion of plots that contain fruiting genets (approximately 15-20%) will be randomly selected for seed counts. The fruits will not be sampled unless they are visibly mature, and seed counts will be performed on site. 5. The contractor will provide one Trimble GPS unit (or equivalent GPS unit) with sub-meter accuracy for relocating plots and locating and establishing a new plot in the Lower Green target area. 6. The field data collection must be completed by a qualified monitoring crew(s) composed of a field crew lead and as necessary field technicians. 7. The contractor must attend a pre-work meeting with the Contracting Officer (CO) and/or Contracting Officer Representative (COR). The Contractor shall supply the necessary qualified personnel (botanists), materials, equipment, and facilities to conduct the field monitoring for the project area. 8. All work must be performed in accordance with BLM standards and follow field data collection, analysis and reporting methods supported by USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] 2010a, 2010b). Contractor must provide qualified personnel who have knowledge and experience in field data collection. 9. The contract period will be from contract award to December 31, 2021. A draft final report will be submitted to the COR at least 60 days prior to the end of the contracting period; no later than October 31, 2021. The VFO BLM will provide comments on the report within 30 days. The VFO BLM will provide comments back to the contractor. A final report will then be prepared and delivered to the VFO BLM no later than December 31, 2021. Both the geographic electronic monitoring data in the format defined below AND a final written report that summarizes the monitoring effort and results will be required for final payment. Deliverables: 1. Contractor will coordinate with the BLM to accomplish year 10 range-wide Sclerocactus monitoring of eight BLM-managed subpopulations and establishment of a new monitoring subpopulation in the Lower Green USFWS core conservation area. 2. Contractor is responsible for providing people and equipment as listed above under �Tasks�. 3. Monitoring will be conducted in early June (target is June 7-18, 2021) but possibly earlier or later depending on weather and phenology (when fruits and seeds are mature). 4. BLM will provide field equipment as reported below under �Government Furnished Property�. BLM will also provide a location for equipment storage and daily field planning and meetings, as needed. 5. Data analysis and reporting will be contracted separately. 6. Contractor is responsible for providing all collected and QA/QC�ed data to Manzanita Botanical at the end of field data collection, no later than July 15, 2021. 7. Data analysis and reporting will be completed by Manzanita Consulting (the existing entity for the USFWS Sclerocactus species data analysis) providing a continuation of the past nine years of interagency efforts. Following completion of field work. Data analyses will comprise: a. Summaries of species-level and subpopulation-level demographic and disturbance data. b. Population viability analyses of 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and species-level averages for the eight established subpopulations on BLM-managed lands. c. Evaluation of ten-year demographic trends with spatially explicit short-term climate data. d. A draft report will be delivered to VFO for review and comment no later than October 31, 2021 for review, (see Task #9). The proposed contract will have a base year and 4 additional option years to be exercised at the BLM's discretion and based on funding availability. Range-wide monitoring was initiated in 2011 and implemented in April 2012 (Year 1) by SWCA Environmental Consultants, in coordination with USFWS Utah Ecological Field Services Office and the BLM Vernal Field Office. The initial five-year project was funded by USFWS in Year 1 and by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Impact Directed Environmental Accounts (IDEA) program Years 2 (2013) through 5 (2016; Hornbeck 2018). The Utah Public Lands Policy Coordination Office (PLPCO) supported monitoring of four target locations in 2017. Monitoring was conducted by VFO and USFWS botanists and volunteers in 2018 and 2019 in Years 7-8 (Hornbeck 2017). No monitoring occurred in 2020. Analysis of the 2012 through 2019 demographic data was completed in 2020 as part of a USFWS recovery criteria development project (Hornbeck 2020). There are no final recovery plans for, or established recovery criteria for Sclerocactus species. However, recovery outlines were developed for each species (USFWS 2010a, USFWS 2010b) The current draft recovery plan outline, however does describe a recovery vision for Sclerocactus that includes sizable and stable populations maintained on conserved suitable habitat, with acceptable levels of connectivity between subpopulations. The recovery outline states, Sclerocactus populations will be maintained to ensure a high probability of survival for the foreseeable future. Meeting these goals will require that threats be sufficiently understood and reduced, and that range-wide monitoring be implemented. The combination of the contractor�s qualifications and requirement of an Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 10 project research permit from USFWS and needing to be the existing entity for the USFWS Sclerocactus species data analysis are key factors in this determination to issue a sole source award. This action is under the authority of FAR 13.106-1. The anticipated award date is 06/18/2021. Please note that this is not a request for quotes. However, all interested parties who believe they can meet the requirements are invited to submit, in writing, complete information describing their ability to provide the services listed above. Deadline date for submittals is 6/18/2021 at 1:00 PM MT. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. For information regarding this notice, please contact Tori Blunt Mayes at tbluntmayes@blm.gov.
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