Answers to Questions

Q. Is there any place to stay onsite?A. Sometimes there is room in the bunkhouse, but not always. Q. Who provides seed? Is the polymer and charcoal provided?A. I provide the seed and polymer and the charcoal. Q. What is the seed mix? A. It is not a seed mix, but seven individual species each seeded separately within each plot. Each species will be 6 feet x 40 feet. The species list is Western wheatgrass, slender wheatgrass, needle & thread, Inland saltgrass, Indian ricegrass, alkali sacaton, and bottlebrush squirreltail. Q. Is another brand of rangeland drill seeder okay besides Kincaid if it's the same size/capability? A. The design calls for a Kincaid/Truax research plot drill with leading residue cutters or chiseltype furrow openers. A substitute can be used if proved to accomplish the exact same thing. Q. Exp't 1: Is seedbed already tilled, kochia stubble?A. The kochia stubble is not tilled. Q. Exp't 2: Is seedbed already tilled? Is it to be drill seeded or broadcast?A. The kochia stubble is not tilled. The rest have a cover crop or nurse crop to be planted so have been tilled and they are drilled. Q . Will data entry for weed study be done by FWS or by contractor? A. For the weed study it will be done by FWS. Q. Can we publish these results?A. Yes. I hope so!! Q. What is the success criteria for the seeding? Liability if part of it fails?A. I sure hope we find at least one technique, but preferable several techniques that will yield successful seeding. What is success? Establishment of at least one species but at what percent cover has not been established. In a desert area such as us - it won't be that high. Liability if it fails - you dealing with a very bummed biologist trying to do restoration on these disturbed fields. I guess we go to plan C.Q. What is the Unit of Issue? Many of the Unit of Issue units are listed in "Months." Does this constitute a contractual obligation to be available for the entire two months or does is merely serve as a time frame for work completion? For example, the rental price for equipment will be much cheaper for the two weeks the equipment is actually used, rather than an entire two month block. It serves as a time frame for work completion. A. Most work in the field can actually be completed in a manner of days, but with weather and personnel schedules, exact dates are not possible. The dates are more of a window in which work could be completed. The exception would be the monitoring of the plots. That may take several weeks of field work to complete. Q. Irrigation. Are there details available about what irrigation materials will be provided and about gallons per minute that will be available and the PSI at connection? Or will this information come post-award?A. This is what I have used in the past. We have 2 pumps we can run and each pump was capable of running about 12 sprinklers for 3 hours. I was using fire hose and garden hose to run irrigation out in the field and each sprinkler covered about 45 feet radius and would total about 5 mm of water on the ground. I was planning on using the same set-up with some improvement in the sprinklers so they would be consistent among the sprinklers. Q. Seeding. Will seed be provided? A. Yes Q. Charcoal Banding Equipment. Are there specific guidelines for the equipment to deliver active charcoal? Is a dry or slurry application preferred?A. I am not familiar with this technique so it is contractor preference. Q. Polymer. The legend in the Study 1 map shows "banded polymer" and the legend in the Study 2 map shows "polyacrylamide polymer." Will the same PAM be used in both studies or are two different products being referenced? A. It is a polyacrylamide polymer applied as banded dry application. Q. Monitoring. Will the contractor be responsible for the monitoring schedule or does the NWR have existing guidelines for when and how often monitoring will occur? A monitoring schedule will be written into the Native Grass Monitoring Plan if no guidelines exist.A. Contractor will be responsibleQ. Are we supposed to include labor and power for the farm equipment listed in the solicitation, i.e., do we provide the tractor in the price?A. The Refuge will provide a farm tractor and a person to drive it, plus a couple people to help with installation.Q. What type of statistical analyses are you looking for or do we just summarize the data for inclusion in someone else's analyses?A. The studies are designed and replicated to provide a 2-way or 3-way factorial design suitable for ANOVA and multivariate analyses. The analyses need to be done by the contractor.