SOURCES SOUGHT
99 -- Vegetation Model
- Notice Date
- 10/16/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Forest Service - R-10 Tongass National Forest
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- AG-0116-S-09-0006
- Response Due
- 11/11/2008
- Archive Date
- 12/31/2008
- Point of Contact
- Stephen M. Patton,, Phone: 907-228-6240
- E-Mail Address
-
spatton@fs.fed.us
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- I. STATEMENT OF NEED The Tongass National Forest recently finished its Forest Plan Amendment (http://tongass-fpadjust.net/Documents/2008_Forest_Plan.pdf). As part of the amendment there is a need to have and or develop a model for projects, to implement the Tongass Adaptive Management Strategy (http://tongass-fpadjust.net/Documents/Record_of_Decision.pdf) (as described in Record of Decision for 2008 Forest Plan Amendment). The Tongass National Forest needs to develop project plans that allow phased implementation of the Forest Plan as described in the recent Record of Decision to project the development of forest conditions over time to quantify the effects on young growth management as it applies to wildlife habitats and to determine a sustainable harvest level at the project level. The implementation of the Adaptive Management Strategy requires the use of a proven vegetation model with the ability to (a) handle large data sets associated with analyzing forest lands with multiple land use allocations (and complex goal rule sets to be simulated); (b) calculate timber harvest level and potential outputs considering the Forest management goals, objectives, and constraints; (c) project the effects on wildlife habitats; and (d) to perform both cost and revenue (financial efficiency) analyses based on alternative management strategies with potential to help evaluate costs factors and trade-offs as the Tongass moves into young growth management. We seek the flexibility to account for and generate spatial and temporal changes resulting from the implementation of any alternative. We seek to adopt a spatial simulation model which will help us develop a range of alternative, feasible land management projects. We seek a model to provide information appropriate to the development of implementable designs for actual on-the-ground projects that meet Forest Plan direction and display progress towards the forest’s desired future condition (DFC). The model should provide a spatially explicit display of the development of the forest conditions and key habitat baselines that move project to DFC. The model should provide a means of constraining and projecting silvicultural treatments while tracking effects on each specific polygon for each year and providing a variety of useful outputs. The inputs and outputs of the model should meet operational and habitat needs and help forest planners for feasible land management projects for our land base. Alternatives developed to implement the Tongass Timber Sale Program Adaptive Management Strategy will need to project the development of forest conditions over time to quantify the effects on wildlife habitat and to determine a sustainable harvest level that allows the ability to incorporate newer deer models, such as Hanley’s FRESH Deer Model (http://cervid.uaa.alaska.edu/deer/). We seek a model wherein constraints and targets can be set for both annual and periodic (multi-year) evaluation within a scenario, enabling differing levels of compliance or restriction between single years and multiple years. II. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS The Forest Service is aware of several potential solutions for a vegetation model, including (a) Telsa / Vegetation Dynamic Development Tool (VDDT) - ESSA Technologies; (b) Multi-Resource Land Allocation Model (MRLAM) - John Sessions; (c) FPS - Forest Projection and Planning Systems; (d) OPTIONS - DR Systems; and (e) SNAP - Sale Network Analysis Program, originally developed by Dr. John Sessions at OSU. These are only potential solutions, and there may be other solutions. In addition to the needs to have a model that implements the Tongass Adaptive Management Strategy outlined above under the statement Of need the following additional considerations are important: (1) habitat indexes (the model should allow customization via prescription development, treatment responses and timing -- future use of Hanley’s FRESH model should easily be incorporated); (2) modeling disturbance (the model should be able to insert disturbance events spatially via GIS layers with potential to be incorporated into software); (3) growth model (while many models can grow trees, the model sought here should to be configurable to use the Forest Service growth and yield model); (4) manipulating individual stand treatments thru time over different rotation lengths; (e) any models may allow individual stand manipulating through database but there is a need to allow this through management regimes, via GIS-based constraints or target rules developed by Forest Service); Other considerations such as software cost, fitting the analytical needs of the EIS, and number of polygons (the model should have enough capacity and potential expansion of data sets to allow for evaluations of small settings and even across the Tongass are also important. III. INSTRUCTIONS TO INTERESTED PARTIES Potential providers of a vegetation modeling solution to meet the needs of the Tongass National Forest (including those potential sources listed in II. above) are invited to identify themselves by submitting brief white papers to help us understand such matters as (a) what capabilities exist in the marketplace; (b) whether existing models meet our needs already or could be easily modified to meet our needs; (c) the buying and selling practices of firms engaged in providing and supporting these models and institutions using the models; (d) the practicability of and potential approaches to testing or demonstrating potential solutions as an early step in a future Forest Service acquisition; (e) the practicability of free short-term licenses for our use as potential customers investigating a product; (f) thoughts on how the Forest Service might evaluate proposals to identify the best solution; and (g) ideas and thoughts regarding the costs the Forest Service might expect to pay. The information shared in these white papers will be used by the Forest Service to determine how we might proceed with an acquisition strategy. This is not a solicitation for prices and products to be purchased in the immediate future; rather, this is market research to help us determine how we might proceed with acquiring a vegetation model in the near future. White papers should be delivered by November 10, 2008, with one copy to Richard Abt, Tongass National Forest, 204 Siginaka Way, Sitka AK 99835-7511, and the second copy to Steve Patton, Tongass National Forest, 648 Mission Street, Ketchikan AK 99901-6534.
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=78b2a471c14bf0b4ba191a54e45e5ef8&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Southeast Alaska, Ketchikan, Alaska, 99901, United States
- Zip Code: 99901
- Zip Code: 99901
- Record
- SN01692474-W 20081018/081016214544-78b2a471c14bf0b4ba191a54e45e5ef8 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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