Description
The Tahoe National Forest intends to award a non-competitive contract to the University of California--Davis for the project outlined in the following Statement of Work. This would be a follow-on to a FY 2001 contract with UC--Davis for refinement and testing of the model. Individuals or organizations who believe they can do the work outlined within the timeframes stated should send a proposal outlining qualifications of the personnel who would do the work, how the work would be accomplished, and the price. Submit such proposals to the following address no later than June 17, 2002: Tahoe National Forest 631 Coyote Street Nevada City, CA 95959 Statement of Work for Year 2 of RAP Project Summary The contractor will assist Tahoe National Forest (TNF) in developing the Forest-wide Roads Analysis Process (RAP) while also training the relevant TNF (and other USFS) staff in the use of the decision-support tool and GIS. This will include refining the existing knowledge base with TNF staff, building in data from road databases, incorporating access points not included in the initial pilot project, running the model for all roads in the Forest and generating reports, developing the final RAP report, and developing a training manual. The products will be user-friendly for technically-adept audiences to assist in automated prioritization of roads for further attention, studies, or management action. The model will be run at the TNF Supervisor?s Office and other locations as needed. Contractor should be familiar with the Sierra Nevada Framework, the Forest Service Roads Analysis Process, and general ecosystem processes and functions as related to roads. All work must be completed by September 30, 2002. Development of the decision-support system The Pacific Northwest Research Station has developed an ?Ecosystem Management Decision Support System? (EMDS, 1999), which will be the program at the center of this project. Within EMDS a knowledge base is developed by the user based on the resources of concern, the processes that interact with or impact the resources, and how these impacts and interactions are expressed. (A knowledge base is a hierarchy of information and rules for interaction describing a system). Ideally this knowledge base will incorporate sufficient data to reasonably support the decisions being made, which can be the same thing as the amount of data available. The decision-support system and assessments will be conducted for the entire Forest and will be based primarily on the knowledge base developed by the Foresthill ID Team. This team identified data gaps that could be filled in the short-term. If this information and other data needed is available, the knowledge base will be updated. Project phases/tasks Task 1: Develop map products and a dynamic tool to serve project level analysis and decision making This project will produce a map or set of maps that allow a transportation engineer or other technical staff at the Forest to ?click? on a road and find out why it received the evaluation score that it did. This will be used at the sub-regional and/or project level when management and investigation decisions are being made. Roads at high risk of causing environmental impact may need closer investigation or closure. These maps will be used for prioritizing management decisions and defending decision-making. The contractor will develop these clickable products and advise TNF staff in the development of maps that include the RAP, INFRA, and other information in one clickable form. In addition, the contractor will assist in creating a dynamic tool that can be readily updated with new spatial data and that can support management decisions for specific roads. Timeframe: Completion by 8/31/02 Task 2: Development of the ?access network? From the initiation of this project, there has been an over-riding concern about access to points throughout the Forest in the face of a changingroad system. In this phase, the contractor will work with the IDT in defining the database of places requiring managed road access. The contractor will guide the IDT in the use of the points in developing a GIS coverage, incorporating the coverage into the RAP model, and producing a mapped network of access routes that have the lowest risk of environmental damage. Timeframe: Completion by 7/31/02 Task 3: Final RAP development and presentation The contractor will assist in writing text and creating figures for the final RAP suitable for public presentation and future NEPA needs. The contractor will produce the final ?risk maps? for the report highlighting the places where road impacts are most likely to be occurring. The contractor will also be available to participate in presentations to the public as deemed necessary by the TNF Project Lead. The contractor will identify gaps in data and knowledge for the final RAP report. Timeframe: Completion by 9/30/02 Task 4: Develop EMDS-RAP Manual The contractor will write an EMDS user manual for roads analysis. The manual will enable Forest or Regional staff to run the ecosystem risk portion of the roads analysis using corporate GIS data. It will be based on the EMDS 2.0/Arc View 3.2 combined software that has been most widely used. The manual will also describe constructing the knowledge base used to run the analysis. Timeframe: Completion by 9/30/02