***This solicitation will remain open to receipt of proposals at any time. Proposals are requested to be submitted by April 20, 2023 for potential projects in the 2023 field season. Proposals received after this date will be evaluated at the convenience of the Forest Service***
Description
The Northern Rockies Stewardship BPA shall be awarded under the following authority:
Stewardship Authority: Section 604 (16 USC 6591c) of Public Law 108-148 as amended by Section 8205 of Public Law 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014—Grants the U.S. Forest Service (Government) permanent authority to enter into stewardship contracts or agreements to achieve land management goals for the National Forests or public lands that meet local and rural community needs. Section 8205 supersedes the temporary authority granted to the Forest Service (Government) in section 347 of Public Law 105-277, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Appropriations Act, 1999.
Stewardship authorities permit the Government to solicit this requirement as Full and Open competition.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The USDA Forest Service Stewardship and Disaster Recovery Branch is advertising the Northern Rockies stewardship BPA. This BPA will issue future calls for individual Hazardous Fuels and Stewardship Restoration project areas in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The scope covers Federal and Non-Federal lands within 150 miles of and including the administrative boundaries of the Idaho Panhandle, Nez Perce-Clearwater, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Bitterroot, Custer-Gallatin, Flathead, Helena- Lewis and Clark, Kootenai, and Lolo National Forests and the Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Work may be accomplished on Non-Federal lands, but the BPA call will be issued and administered by a government entity.
Multiple awards will be made for this BPA on an individual National Forest basis once the Forest Service has evaluated the technical proposals and pricing submitted in response to the solicitation. Examples of the types of Hazardous Fuels and Restoration work that may be included are cutting and removal of sawtimber, non-sawtimber, and/or biomass; mastication, hand cutting and piling; and road maintenance.
The period of performance of the awarded Blanket Purchase Agreements is 10 years from date of contract with option to extend up to 20 years. This BPA will be the primary means in which future Call Orders issued include: (1) Integrated Resource Service Contract (IRSC) with required timber product removal; (2) IRSCs that includes the option for Timber Subject to Agreement products to be removed when there is no required timber product removal; and (3) Restoration-based Service contract in which no timber product removal is included.
Future Call Orders for specific projects will be emailed to only the Contractors awarded under this BPA. As such, it is imperative that all interested individuals have an email account, and that all firms must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) to be eligible for award under this solicitation. If not actively registered, the Forest Service will be unable to make a BPA award; thereby, effectively excluding an otherwise successful offeror from receiving a Call Order solicitation. Registration in SAM is a free service. Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) offers resources that are available free of charge at https://www.aptac-us.org/contracting-assistance/ in order to assist with both SAM registration and in proposal submission.
Points of contact for this solicitation are:
The Contracting Officer for this BPA is Mark T. Phillipp, National Stewardship Contracting Branch, and can be reached at mark.phillipp@usda.gov.
