Stewardship Contracting

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Stewardship Contracting

• U.S. Forest Service
• Richard Braun

A CRASH Course
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Richard Braun

• 6 years as a Contracting Officer
• Have worked for V.A., DLA, Army
• Currently work for Forest Service, R2 Regional
  Office in Golden, CO
• 
  

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Background

• Over the past two decades, the federal timber
  sale program has declined. However, the need for
  restorative or maintenance work in ecosystems
  remains. To accomplish the Forest Service's
  stewardship responsibilities, creative approaches
  are needed to complete the necessary work and
  simultaneously contribute to the economic growth
  of local and rural communities. "Stewardship End
  Result Contracting" is one solution to this
  problem.

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Authority for Stewardship

• Section 323 Public Law 108-7, 2003
• The FS and BLM may enter into projects
• Via contract or agreement
• With private persons, public or private entities
• Thru September 30, 2013
• To perform services to achieve land management
  goals that meet local and rural community needs

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Appropriate Use of Stewardship Authority

• Road and trail Maintenance or obliteration to
  restore water quality
• Soil productivity, habitat for wildlife and
  fisheries, or other resource values
• Setting of prescribed fires to improve
  composition, structure, condition and health of
  forest stands or improve wildlife habitat

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Appropriate Use of Stewardship Authority

• Removing Vegetation or other activities to
  promote healthy forest stands, reduce fire
  hazards, or achieve other land management
  objectives
• Watershed restoration and maintenance

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Appropriate Use of Stewardship Authority

• Restoration and maintenance of wildlife and fish
  habitat
• Control of noxious and exotic weeds and
  reestablishing native plant species
• Other appropriate land management goals.

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Characteristics of Stewardship

• Collaboration throughout the life of the project
• Trades goods (forest products) for services
• Allows multi-year contracts up to 10 years in
  length
• Contractors selected using Best Value process

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Characteristics Cont.

• Full NEPA compliance required
• Designate trees without marking
• If product value is greater than service work,
  excess receipts can be retained for other
  projects
• Stewardship credits, Payment bond, or cash
  payment can be used to cover advanced deposits

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Contract Vehicles

• IRSC (Integrated Resource Service Contract) 2
  types
• IRTC (Integrated Resource Timber Contract) 2
  types
• Agreements 3 types

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Integrated Resource Service Contract

• Price of service work exceeds value of goods
• Procurement Contracting Officer awards
  administers the contract
• Region 2 currently uses one of two templates to
  prepare contract.
• Selection of template based on whether or not
  construction is involved

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Integrated Resource Timber Contract

• Value of goods exceeds price of service work
• Timber Contracting Officer awards administers
  the contract
• Region 2 currently uses one of two templates
• Selection of template
• FS 2400 13T used for Tree Measurement
• FS 2400 13 used for Scaled Measurement

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Agreements

• Types
• Cost Share (FSM 1587.12)
• Participating (FSM 1587.11)
• Wyden
• For more information see Handout entitled
  Agreement or Contract Use, and Forest Service
  Manual (FSM) 1580

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Elements Common to both IRSC IRTC

• Contractor selected by Best Value Process
• Trades goods for services
• Full NEPA compliance required
• Contract modification allowed
• Additional timber allowed
• No periodic payments

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Elements Common to both IRSC IRTC

• No bid guarantee
• No use of transferred in purchaser credit for
  advanced deposits
• Stewardship credits, Payment bond, or cash
  payment can be used to cover advanced deposits
• Charges associated with timber removal must be
  paid in cash (i.e. KV, BD, Road Maintenance)

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Elements Common to both IRSC IRTC

• Product Accountability requirements apply
• Export requirements West of 100th Meridian apply
• Painting and Branding West of the 100th Meridian
  apply

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IRSC IRTC

• For a detailed list of similarities and
  differences between IRSC, IRTC, and timber sales
  see handout

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Where to Find Stewardship Opportunities

• IRSC www.fedbizopps.gov
• IRTC
• North Timber Zone (WR, AR, MBR, Shoshone,
  Bighorn) Patti Roylance, p.307-745-2354
  proylance_at_fs.fed.us
• South Timber Zone Bob Huthman, p.970-874-6665
  rhuthman_at_fs.fed.us
• Black Hills Greg McGranahan, p.605-673-9244
  gmcgranahan_at_fs.fed.us

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Best Value What Does the Government Want in a
Contractor?

• What do you look for when you go shopping for a
  good or service?
• A Quality Product that meets your needs and
  expectations
• Delivered or Performed on time
• A Fair and Reasonable Price
• A Decent Warranty
• A Vendor or Brand with a good reputation

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What Does the Government Want in a Contractor?

• The government likes to do business with the same
  type of vendors you do!
• The government may use different terminology to
  describe what it is looking for but the
  underlying characteristics are the same

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Best Value

• Examples of Evaluation Factors other than Price
• Past Performance
• Experience
• Technical Approach
• Key Personnel

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Best Value

• Contracting by Negotiation (FAR Part 15)
• Allows the government to evaluate factors other
  than price to determine what is the best value
  for the government.
• Allows the government to tailor the evaluation
  factors to reflect what is most important for
  that individual procurement (e.g. past
  performance, experience, key personnel,
  Management capability, etc.)
• When negotiations are authorized by the CO, it
  allows the vendors to revise and improve their
  proposal thru negotiations
• Authorizes two source selection techniques The
  Tradeoff Process and Lowest Price Technically
  Acceptable.

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Trade Off Process

• All evaluation factors and significant sub
  factors that will affect the contract award and
  their relative importance shall be clearly stated
  in the solicitation
• The solicitation shall state whether all
  evaluation factors other than cost or price, when
  combined , are significantly more important than,
  approximately equal to, or significantly less
  important than cost or price
• This process permits the government to award to
  other than the lowest price proposal and to other
  than the highest technically rated proposal.
• If the government chooses to award to a higher
  priced offeror, it must merit the additional cost
  and the rationale for the tradeoffs must be
  documented in the file.

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Proposal Evaluation

• Proposal evaluation is an assessment of the
  proposal and the offerors ability to perform the
  prospective contract successfully usually done
  by a panel of technical experts.
• An agency shall evaluate competitive proposals
  and then assess their relative qualities solely
  on the factors and sub factors specified in the
  solicitation.

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Suggested Reading for Best Value

• Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
• located at http//farsite.hill.af.mil/
• - FAR Subpart 9.1 Responsible Prospective
  Contactors
• -FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items
• -FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures
• -FAR Part 15 Contracting by Negotiation

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Suggested Reading for Stewardship

• 16 U.S.C. 2104 (Stewardship Contracting Law
• Forest Service Handbook (FSH) 2409-19 Renewable
  Resources Handbook, Chapter 60
• FS Website http//www.fs.fed.us/forestmanagement/
  projects/stewardship/index.shtml

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Richard BraunUSDA Forest Service

• 303-275-5264
• 303-275-5299
• rabraun_at_fs.fed.us