THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY for market research purposes to identify interested vendors for the potential requirement detailed below. A formal solicitation and performance work statement are not available. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 19.5, Set-Asides for Small Business, the Government will review the information requested in this announcement to determine the type of set-aside (if any) for this requirement, should it come to fruition. The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking a qualified contractor to perform the requirements stated below in the Description of Services for BLM Revision of Forest Operations Inventory (FOI) Stand Layer for the Northwest Oregon BLM. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541370 and the size standard is $15M. All business concerns who believe they can responsibly perform this requirement should submit the following information to the assigned Contract Specialist no later than 5 PM MST Friday, July 26, 2018: 1. Capability statement describing corporate expertise and technical qualifications in the work described in the Description of Services. 2. Past Performance information describing other contracts for similar services your company has been awarded. Past Performance information should be submitted for projects conducted within the last three years and include: project title, location, whether the work was as a prime or subcontractor, contract/subcontract dollar value, type of contract, percentage of self-performed work, and overall performance rating received. 3. Small business status of vendor (8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, etc.) 4. Point of contact information for vendor, Cage Code, and D&B Number. 5. Any other information that will prove the vendor is capable of performing the required effort. There are no page limitations for responses to this notice; however, response pages must be single-sided. You may email your responses to
[email protected]. Fax responses will not be accepted. NOTE: All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary, the Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government. Materials submitted to the Government for review will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. This is not a request for quotes. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on responses received under this announcement. All questions and concerns may be submitted to the Contract Specialist via email only at
[email protected]. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES For BLM Revision of Forest Operations Inventory (FOI) Stand Layer for the Northwest Oregon BLM. DESCRIPTION - The Forest Operations Inventory Vegetation (FOIVEG_POLY) feature class is a forest-centric classification of vegetation with polygons that cover 100% of western Oregon BLM lands. It also depicts the ability to operate within the unit for treatments and/or harvest. The two characteristics are used with a hierarchical approach. The primary focus is on classifying forest vegetation and the secondary focus on operations. FOIVEG_POLY describes forested lands in great detail and non-forest lands with broad and general classifications. It includes and uses related table data from the Western Oregon Micro*Storms (M*S) system to describe forest vegetation. Polygons are delineated primarily based on differences in vegetative cover, size, and age. FOIVEG_POLY attributes, including cover type and ten year age class describe both the overall forest stand as well as the layers within that stand. Creating Forest Vegetation Polygons: Significant changes in vegetation species composition, size, and density that can be observed on aerial photography are the primary reasons for creation of new polygons. The target minimum mapping size for vegetation types is five acres. However, more unique features such as ponds and rock outcrops that are detectable on resource photography may be mapped down to as small as one acre. Similarly, timber harvest, silviculture treatments, or other disturbances, one acre or larger, that result in significant change in vegetation may also be defined as unique FOIVEG_POLY polygons. Overlapping or multi-part polygons are not allowed. In the past, FOIVEG_POLY polygons needed to be mapped to match BLM administered land boundaries, township, range and section line delineations, county boundaries, and Resource Area boundaries. However, except for staying within BLM administered lands and within district boundaries, the FOIVEG_POLY polygons can cross over these administrative lines to describe the continuity of a forest stand. The attributes for the OI key number, stand description, and age class are derived from the M*S database. The OI key number is unique for every polygon. Example 1: A 20 acre regeneration timber sale unit was sold and harvested out of a 100 acre stand of older timber that was previously delineated in FOIVEG_POLY. A new vegetation polygon is created in FOIVEG_POLY utilizing the timber sale boundary that had been traversed by Global Positioning System (GPS). The boundary of the older stand is modified so that there are no overlaps, and is contiguous with the boundary of the new unit. Utilizing M*S, the new polygon acquires a unique OI Key number and the vegetation attributes are entered for the new stand. This process updates the stand description and age class in FOIVEG_POLY. Example 2: A thinning treatment, captured on the relevant HARV_POLY feature class, with scattered quarter-acre skips and gaps was applied to an existing FOIVEG_POLY polygon. Since the entire area was treated, a new boundary is not necessary in FOIVEG_POLY and the scattered small pockets of skips or gaps are not appropriate to be distinguished as unique polygons. If the species composition or density has significantly changed, those attributes may need to be edited in M*S, but the birth year or age class would not change. EDITING PROCEDURES Use the following hierarchical guide when making spatial and attribute edits. o Distinguishable, like kind forest vegetation is the primary delineation factor for polygons. o Use stand exam stand descriptions (species mix, size class, density, stand age, height, and structure) as a gauge to delineate differences for lumping or splitting FOI-VEG polygons. o Use LiDAR (if available) for forest stand major average height differences and densities. o Use the latest most accurate digital orthoquad imagery for significant changes in vegetative species composition, size and density. o Since most managed stands since the 1970¿s maintained good planting dates, use these birthdates and associated spatial areas for delineations. o Use previous treatments within portions of a unit, such as PCT, to consider splitting or combining. o Forest stand polygons can cross different section lines within BLM ownership but must stay within the district administrative unit. o Take into consideration the historic and future operational treatment unit for decisions to lump or split polygons. o Target minimum mapping feature for vegetation type at about 5 acres. o Unique non-forest features such as ponds, rock outcrops, meadows etc. may be mapped to a minimum of 1 acre. o Using these acreage guidelines, delineate non-forest, non-suitable woodland vegetation types, and/or withdrawals that may exist in the special habitats geodatabases. EDITING AND QUALITY CONTROL GUIDELINES In general, there are two separate phases to the editing work: 1) Refinement ¿ increasing delineation fidelity of existing polygons to improved imagery (LiDAR and aerial photography), editing FOIVEG_POLY to match special habitats delineations where adjacent, removing splinter cells. 2) Re-delineation- creation of new FOI units by aggregation or splitting of existing polygons. Validate topology to confirm Polygons form a continuous seamless cover across the feature class with no overlaps. Within the FOIVEG_POLY feature class, ¿overlap¿ is not allowed. There cannot be more than one feature in the feature class that occupies the same space (¿stacked¿ polygons). Multi-part features are not allowed. Forested vs. Non-Forested: Where BLM has classified polygons cover type as FCO, FMX or FHD, these are forested, they have >10% forest cover. FOI polygons identified as non-forested are coded as ¿N¿ including Non-forested Rock, Grass, water (NR, NG, NW, etc.). In general areas classified by the BLM as Forested should not be included in the special habitats inventory (the inventory is intended to include only non-forested areas), and areas already classified by the BLM as `non-forested¿ should be included in the inventory. Non-forested areas as small as 1.0 acre may be added as new polygons within forested polygons, if forest cover is <10%. Snapping guidelines: Vegetation boundaries that are based on identifiable features such as roads, streams, or ownership should copy or snap to those source line features to illustrate the cartographic relationship. Where line segments with different COORD_SRC meet, the most accurate or important (in terms of legal boundary representation) are kept unaltered, and other lines snapped to them. In general, the Landlines Information (GCD points/lines) are of highest priority, however, see the description above for other reference layer guidance considerations. When snapping to the data indicated in COORD_SRC (as opposed to duplicating with copy/paste), be sure there are exactly the same number of vertices in the target, and source theme arcs.