USDA Forest Service, Shawnee National Forest, 50 Highway 145 South, Harrisburg, IL 62946

F -- MACHINE AND/OR HAND PLANT TREE SEEDLINGS SOL 0908-99-005 DUE 031799 POC Contracting Officer, Barbara Ridley (618)253-7114 or Technical Contact, Tom Neal (618) 658-2111 Tree Planting on the Shawnee National Forest. This project entails machine and/or hand planting of trees in lowland areas in the Mississippi River floodplain on the Jonesboro Ranger District of the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. The Contractor will be responsible for purchasing all tree seedlings (40,600 cypress), providing cold storage facilities to keep seedlings at a temperature between 33-38 degrees Fahrenheit, and machine and/or hand planting all tree seedlings. The Contractor shall furnish all labor, supervision, seedlings, materials, supplies, tools, equipment, transportation, cold storage faciliites, and incidentals necessary to perform the work in accordance with the specifications and requirements. Multiple contracts may be awarded if doing so would be in the best interest of the Government. In order to be eligible for award of a contract, prospective Contractors must be located with 200 miles of Anna, IL. This restriction is necessary in order to assure completion of the project within the designated timeframe. This projectis very time critical and the Contractor will need to make use of every good planting day from the date of award until July 30, 1999. In order to utilize every day available, the Contractor will need to monitor the local ground conditions in the planting areas on a daily basis. The physical condition of the ground, particularly soil moisture levels, is a critical factor when determining when planting may take place. Local weather conditions have a significant impact on the soil conditions and will need to be monitored on a daily basis. The Contractor will need to make daily decisions and start or stop planting on very short notice and quite possiblely on an erratic basis throughout the planting period. Posted 01/29/99 (W-SN292648). (0029)

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