Huron-Manistee: Opening, Seeding and Mowing

The Lake States Acquisition Team announces an opportunity on the Huron-Manistee National Forests' Baldwin Ranger District. It is the intent of this contract to secure services for wildlife opening grass and forb planting, cool season grass and sapling mowing, apple tree prunning and in some cases removing the whole tree as per specifications. Contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supervision, transportation and supplies. Grass and forb seed will be furnished by the government. A grass seeder can be supplied by the government if necessary. Access to the work areas is by state, county and forest roads. See site maps This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is AG-569R-S-14-0044 This solicitation is issued as a Request for Quote (RFQ) and the documents incorporate provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-75. This procurement is a total small-business set aside. The NAICS code is 561730 and the Small Business Size Standard is $7.0M. Vendors must be registered in Systems for Award Management (SAM) prior to receiving a government contract (formerly Central Contractors Registration or CCR). See www.sam.gov for details - this may take up to 2 weeks and requires a DUNS number, so it is highly recommended that interested parties register immediately in order to avoid any delays in award. All invoices are to be submitted via the electronic Invoice Processing Platform. This is a mandatory requirement initiated by the U.S. Department of Treasury and you can find more information at this website https://www.ipp.gov/index.htm. Please make sure that your company has registered at https://www.ipp.gov/vendors/enrollment-vendors.htm to establish your account. The "Submit Invoice-to" address for USDA orders is the Department of Treasury's Invoice Processing Platform (IPP). The contractor must follow the instructions on how to register and submit invoices via IPP. 52.232-18 -- Availability of Funds. (Apr 1984) Funds are not presently available for this contract. The Government's obligation under this contract is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment for contract purposes can be made. No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may arise until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer for this contract and until the Contractor receives notice of such availability, to be confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer. Further provisions, clauses, and addenda including, but not limited to, commercial provisions 52.212-1, 52.212-2, 52.212-3 and commercial clauses 52212-4, 52.212-5 are incorporated in the attached solicitation. Those that are incorporated by reference can be viewed in full text at https://www.acquisition.gov/far. Item #1, Planting cool and warm season grasses and forbs on 29 acres of existing wildlife openings. The openings will need to be disked or rotovated to provide a seed bed that is 90% weed free. After tilling the area it is to be culti-packed and then seeded using a truax tow behind grass and forb seeder. Item #2, Mow and/or brush hog cool season grasses, forbs and some small saplings on 240.5 acres of existing wildlife openings including a 3 acre apple orchard. Areas are to be mowed to a height of approximately 6"h. Fields will be delineated using hot pink ribbon when necessary, and an 8-10' buffer is to be left unmowed near each fence line where an actual fence line exists (Mansfield Mowing only). The other areas to be mowed will require mowing to the forest edge. Mow the grasses and brush hog any small saplings that are encroaching (<2" diameter breast height) in the 3 acre orchard opening. Trimming should allow a farm tractor with a brush hog to mow between the individual apple trees and the forested edge. This work shall be done after hand cutting/trimming and brush piling is complete (Item #3). Item #3, Hand cut and trim each apple tree in the 3 acre orchard to allow yearly mowing, and maintain a diversity of grasses and forbs. Trimming should be sufficient to allow a full size farm tractor to mow by or underneath without interference from hanging branches. After the trimming is finished create 4 brush piles just outside of the opening in the forest as per brush pile specifications. The award date will be on/or about August 5, 2014. The services are to be completed by September 30th. See Solicitation and Statement of Work for further information. The Government may issue an order to other than the lowest offeror, waive minor informalities or irregularities in offers received, or elect not to award at all. If necessary, the Government may conduct discussions with any or all offerors. It is in the offeror's best interest to fully respond to the Experience Questionnaire since an order may be issued on the basis of information received, without further discussion. Award will be made on a Best Value basis and offers shall at a minimum, contain the items described in this section. Each offer shall contain sufficient information to enable a thorough evaluation. All offers must submit the following: (1) Experience and Capabilities Questionnaire to define non-price evaluation factors and elements described under FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation- commercial Items (use additional pages if necessary); (2) Biobased Questionnaire to define utilization of Biobased Products; (3) Offerors shall include representation and certifications in AGAR 452.209-70; and (4) Completed Schedule of Items, with pricing, contact information and SAM certification. If annual representations and certifications are not active Offerors shall include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items, with its offer. An offeror shall complete only paragraphs (b) of this provision if the offeror has completed the annual representations and certificates electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) online at www.sam.gov. If an offeror has not completed the annual representations and certifications electronically at the online, the offeror shall complete only paragraphs (c) through (o) of this provision. (SAM replaces ORCA, CCR and Acquistion.gov). All offers must be received by 4:00 EST on July 30, 2014 Please submit one complete copy of the above information to: USDA Forest Service - AG-569R-S-14-0044 Erin Garcia, LSAT Contracting Officer 412 Red Apple Road Manistee, MI 49660 Offers may be submitted electronically to contact@example.gov, SUBJ: AG-569R-S-14-0044. If submitting via email please note file size limitations, formatting or other problems may hamper receipt so please verify that the contracting officer has received your quote. No facsimile offers will be considered per (c)(1) of FAR clause 52.215-1 Instructions to Offerors -- Competitive Acquisition. (Jan 2004). Incomplete offers will not be accepted. Contact Erin Garcia at contact@example.gov or +1 (555) 000-0000 with general questions concerning this solicitation. Contact Jim Cline at contact@example.gov or +1 (555) 000-0000 x3126 for technical questions concerning this solicitation.