Clay Springs Allotment-Powerline Pasture Grassland Maintenance Survey

PRE-SOLICITATION/ADVERTISEMENT ONLY, THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. THIS PROJECT WILL BE SENT OUT AS A CALL ORDER FOR THE LAND MANAGEMENT INTEGRATED RESOURCES (LMIR) BPA. INTERESTED CONTRACTORS NEED TO BE ON THE LMIR BPA CONTRACTOR POOL. FOR MORE DETAILS REGARDING THIS BPA, SEARCH ' 12363N23Q4023' ON SAM.GOV. Call orders for this will be sent out to contractors on the LMIR BPA tentatively late winter/early spring 2023. General Overview This survey is part of the larger Clay Springs Allotment and survey consists of inventorying 2,300 acres within the Powerline pasture, recording isolated occurrences and new sites, and monitoring or re-recording previously recorded sites within and adjacent to the survey area on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests (ASNFs). An inventory report, GIS data collection, site record and map creation, and data entry into the Heritage NRM Database will be required for this survey. The purpose of the Clay Springs Allotment-Powerline Pasture Grassland Maintenance project is to improve range land and forest health to desire conditions as set forth in the Land Management Plan for the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and the Clay Springs Allotment Management Plan (AMP). Areas in the allotment have been identified as Great Basin grassland that have become encroached upon by pinon-juniper savannah which has caused a higher amount of canopy cover and loss of herbaceous understory. The desired conditions are to restore a canopy cover level of 10% or less in the grassland areas. The project plans to return the designated grassland areas to desired conditions through the use of vegetation treatments utilizing heavy equipment (e.g. dozers, skidders, excavators, etc.) to remove the encroaching pinon-juniper from the landscape by mastication, plucking (whole tree removal), personal or commercial fuelwood sales, tree shearing, and hand thinning. Use of prescribed burning, pile burning, pesticides or weed killers may also be used to maintain grasslands and treatment areas.