Jim Doran, Exec. Director

Stewardship Contracting Basic Structure – February 6, 2004

The Colville Coalition will be urging the Colville National Forest Supervisor to use the tools allowed under the Stewardship Contracting provisions of the Forest Service Handbook, effective January 28, 2004. The initial project will be the Burnt Valley Categorical Exclusion (CE), Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Project. The Burnt Valley Project consists of three basic functions within the 1000 acres of mechanical treatment. They are: approx. 25% commercial thinning and 75% non-commercial thinning and brush and slash piling. The 4,500 acres of prescribed fire will be undertaken by the Forest Service, in house.

1. General Contractor: Previous discussions amongst the Coalition members and with the Priest River Stewardship Project personnel have lead to the conclusion that an experienced, stable and bondable operator or mill owner would be best suited to act as the General Contractor for the Stewardship Contract. The General Contractor must submit a bid for the work required. That bid will be in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) from the Forest Service that describes the work to be done.

2. The Bid: The General Contractor, such as Vaagen Bros. Inc., can submit a bid based only upon the work requested or may submit a bid that contains additional services to be performed that are listed as desired functions within the Stewardship Contracting Handbook and that “meet the needs of the local and rural community” and that “involve collaboration”. The Stewardship Contract shall be awarded based upon a “best value basis” and “criteria other than cost or price” shall be considered. The non-price considerations include past performance, work quality, etc. The Forest Supervisor may consider the “benefits to the local and rural community when awarding a stewardship contract on a best value basis”. Full regular bonding for the contract is required.

3. Stewardship Services: The General Contractor, for instance Vaagen Bros., would analyze the value and costs of the project and submit an appropriate bid. (This does not require the Colville Coalition to learn the world of timber appraisal, sales, etc.). That bid will describe the additional services that the Colville Coalition will provide on a subcontracted basis. Those services are as follows:

1. Conduct the requisite “community collaboration” for the project.

2. Act as the public relations agent for developing a public perception for stewardship projects.

3. Stewardship project promotion.

4. Provide a public educational component for the project within the community where the project is being done.

5. Work with the Spokane Community College and WA State Work Source on a job training program for sub-contractors.

6. Provide the Third Party Monitoring for the project (this cannot be funded by the Stewardship Project and will be funded by the Coalition through grant funding).

7. Coordinate with the Community Fire Plan process in the vicinity of the project.

The costs for these services has not yet been developed for the Burnt Valley project. The experiences of the Priest River Pilot Stewardship Project will be taken into consideration as they are itemized. A portion of these costs may be covered by a grant to the National Forest Foundation that has been submitted by the Coalition.

4. “Best Value” Priority: Essentially what this means is that the Stewardship Contract can be awarded even though it has a higher cost to it because it will provide the “best value” to the Forest Service. The criteria used for this determination will be open and public. Therefore, a responsive bid that identifies the functions that are to be provided by the Colville Community Forestry Coalition, as a sub-contractor under the project, will be held to be of a greater value and should receive a priority in the award decision. Notably, the expenses for the functions provided by the Colville Community Forestry Coalition will be covered by the higher bid amount or grant funding and the General Contractor will receive as much as would be awarded without the “best value stewardship functions”. There is no actual cost to the General Contractor.

5. Stewardship Efficiencies for the Forest Service: The use of Stewardship Contracting provides many benefits to the Forest Service. Most of them revolve around efficiencies (cost reductions), such as the use of “designation by description”. The payment to the contractor by the use of the “goods for services” provisions allows for much more work to be done than is funded within the Forest Service budget. The ability of the local Forest Service office to “retain excess receipts” also provides funding for future projects that are not otherwise funded within the Forest Service budget.

It has been suggested that the Coalition work with the Forest Supervisor to obtain the “stewardship contracting format”, if it has been developed by Region 6, in order to familiarize potential general contractors with its requirements. A Stewardship Contracting Workshop, with “stewardship” experienced private contractors and “stewardship” contracting officers from the Forest Service, has also been suggested. The Coalition will organize this Workshop as soon as possible. The Chewelah Peak Learning Center will provide the venue.

See: Washington Office Forest Service Handbook, Chapter 60 – Stewardship Contracting, sent as an attachment to this memo.