The primary purpose of this effort is to advance scientific and technical knowledge and apply that knowledge to the extent necessary to achieve agency and national goals. The USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) effort, is part a national program responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting, and distributing information and data about the extent, content, and condition of the Nation's rural and urban forests, as well as how much forest land exists and who owns it. FIA's research emphasis is on achieving specified objectives and knowledge rather than on achieving predetermined end results prescribed in a statement of specific performance characteristics. Crew leaders who complete this work will be working independently without a Forest Service employee present except for on a few hot checks. The US Forest Service will not direct the daily work assignments completed by crew leaders. There are four FIA Units with the Northern Research Station's FIA unit, having the responsibility for the comprehensive forest and urban inventory for 24 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. National, state, and local policymakers, universities, businesses, Tribal governments, National Forest managers, other natural resource agencies, and various interest groups depend on FIA for timely, scientifically credible information about our forests and urban landscape. FIA inventory plots are randomly located throughout the NRS Region with the vast majority of plots occurring on privately owned lands. Determining ownership of plot locations and gaining permission from landowners to complete the inventory is critical to the success of the project. In some cases more than one owner may need to be contacted to access a plot, this is especially true in urban settings. Communication skills and the ability to work independently are essential requirements of the work. Use of aerial photography, other imagery, maps, and previous FIA plot records may be necessary to accurately locate FIA plot locations and collect forest inventory resource data. This work requires regular and recurring physical exertion in the form of travel on foot over rough, uneven, and steep terrain. This work requires several hours of driving, several days each week with work locations changing frequently, often on a daily basis. Work areas may range from an urban environment to a remote wilderness area and everything else in between. The urban environment involves working in commercial, residential, and FIA plots are located across the entire contract area and overnight travel to access and complete many of the inventory plots in this contract will be a necessary. Access to some plots may require the use of watercraft as well as coordination with other public and private agencies. Additional NRS FIA program information can be found at: http://fia.fs.fed.us/ http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/. http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/data-collection/ Additional NRS Urban FIA program information can be found at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/urban/. http://www.fs.fed.us/research/urban/fia. In Accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation part 35.007 Research and Development Contracting Solicitation, the submission and evaluation of an inordinate number of R&D proposals from sources lacking appropriate qualifications is costly and time-consuming. Therefore, the Contracting Officer will only provide the solicitation to sources technically qualified to perform. Potential sources will be qualified, as a result of: (1) Present and past performance of similar work; (2) Professional stature and reputation; (3) Relative position in a particular field of endeavor; (4) Ability to acquire and retain the professional and technical capability, including facilities, required to perform the work; and (5) Other relevant factors. Contractors MUST respond to this Sources Sought Notice. At this time the Contracting Officer will gather information on interested contractors. When the Statement of Work, Experience Questionnaire and Plot Type Tests are available they will be distributed to those that responded. Once those documents are returned the Government will evaluate the technical qualifications of the Offeror. ONLY contractors found be minimally technically qualified by the Contracting Officer will be included in the solicitation evaluation. Once a contractor is determined to be Technically Qualified, the solicitation will be released to that offeror. Once the offeror responds to the solicitation other evaluations will be made to determine more specific technical abilities, those evaluations may include contractor testing. If the contractor is found to be Technically Qualified, they will be awarded a five-year Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). The Government anticipates making multiple awards. Contractors awarded these BPAs shall constitute the Forest Inventory Analysis Suite of contractors. This BPA Suite is where future requirements shall be competed. Entry to the FIA BPA Suite is based entirely on technical qualifications of the contractor and individual staff members in key positions. This Sources Sought notice will be posted for the remainder of the calendar year, and contractors will be awarded a BPA as they are found technically competent and contractually responsible. This will result in multiple BPAs being awarded at different times, on different days.
