Stewardship Contracting Refresher

1. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Overall goal: Student will understand and apply the concepts associated with contracting authority.

2. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Benefits of Stewardship Contracting • One contract • Project completed in less time • More service work performed • Increased public support • Reduction of potential adverse environmental impacts • Reduced costs per acre for service work

3. Stewardship Contracting Refresher New authorities • Omnibus Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2003 • Used successfully in Forest Service • Supports Healthy Forests Initiative • Regional Forester approval

4. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Key Element • Collaborate outside of traditional NEPA contacts. • Education is key • Understand the contract, solicitation process, financial accounting • Educate contractors through workshops and field trips and gain their support.

5. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Review of Special Authorities • Exchange goods for service • Retention of Retained Receipts • Reduce reliance on WFHF dollars • Other appropriated money • Retention of KV Receipts

6. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Review of Special Authorities • Designation by Description (DxD) • Designation by Prescription (DxP) • Best Value contract award • Multi-year contracts • Less than full and open competition • Non-USDA administration of timber sales

7. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Potential Stewardship Projects • Trail maintenance • Prescribed fire • Restoration of habitat • Watershed restoration and maintenance • Eradication of noxious weeds

8. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Policy and Direction FSH 2409.19, Chapter 60

9. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Does a Stewardship Proposal require Regional Forester approval?

10. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Where do retained receipts come from? • How can they be used in a stewardship project?

11. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Which of the following are special authorities pertaining to stewardship contracting? • Best Value award • Logging and service work combined • Less competition • Involve large companies • Promote community involvement

12. Stewardship Contracting Refresher New Contract Types • Integrated Resource Timber Contract (IRTC) • Integrated Resource Service Contract (IRSC)

13. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Contract Components • Solicitation • Schedule of service work items • Service work specifications • Forest Product values and volumes • Best Value process

14. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Stewardship Credits • Earned • Applied • Timing • Uses • Stumpage value

15. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Stumpage value must be covered in advance of cutting by cash, bond or earned stewardship credits. True or False?

16. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Solicitation of Advertisement • Advertisement • Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) • Newspapers • Prospectus • IRSC – None • IRTC – Available upon request

17. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Best Value Offer and Award • Proposal • Technical proposal • Small business • Offer disposition

18. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Contractor's Submission Method • IRTC • Bid Form for timber • Technical proposal • IRSC • Technical proposal • Price Proposal for Forest Products

19. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Which of the following are benefits of Best Value Offer and Award? • Allows evaluation on a contractor’s past performance • Offers opened publicly • Cannot negotiate after opening

20. QUIZ TIME Stewardship Contracting Refresher • Which of the following is the contractor’s submission method for an IRTC Stewardship contract? • Solicitation • Technical proposal • Bid form

21. Stewardship Contracting Refresher IRTC Work Bundling • Work item considerations: • Proximity to harvest units • No construction or reconstruction work • Except Specified Road Work • Contractor expertise

22. Stewardship Contracting Refresher IRSC Bundling Considerations • Work items: • Roads used for log haul • Roads not used for log haul • Widely distributed • Goods for service • Cash payments

23. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Shared Lessons • Bundle project wisely – keep it simple • Who are contractors? • What kind of equipment do they have? • How familiar are they with the work? • Avoid the strange and exotic • Write clear specifications • Uncertainty = higher prices • Group similar cost treatments/units as pay items • Avoid mixing high cost and low cost units in one bid item • Accounting is critical – know how to manipulate spreadsheets

24. Stewardship Contracting Refresher Group exercise This is the end of this section. • The Flatland District of the Kansas National Forest has 3,000 acres of predominantly heavy mid-story undergrowth with an opportunity to do a commercial timber harvest adjacent to, but not within, these acres. A commercial entity is interested in grinding up the mid-story undergrowth into chips for a local biomass market for hog-fuel (power generation at a mill). The purchaser is not interested in the commercial timber but it could be included in a single stewardship proposal to the Regional Forester because it has some opportunities for eliminating a bad privet invasion problem scattered on acres next to the harvest units. • Assume all of this work is going into one stewardship Project Proposal to the Regional Forester. What special authorities need to be requested in the proposal? What types of contracts might be used?