SOLICITATION NOTICE
F -- Long Term Wild Horse Holding Facility Located in the Continental U.S.
- Notice Date
- 6/2/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, National Centers Region, BLM-BC NATIONAL BUSINESS CENTER* BC663 BLDG 50, DFC, PO BOX 25047 DENVER CO 80225
- ZIP Code
- 80225
- Solicitation Number
- NAR080108
- Response Due
- 7/30/2008
- Archive Date
- 6/2/2009
- Point of Contact
- Steven Santoro Contracting Officer 3032363518 Steven_Santoro@blm.gov;
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has a requirement for one or more pasture facilities to maintain from 500 to 2,500 wild horses each for one year, with 4 additional one year option periods. The facilities must be located in the Continental United States. The following sets forth the background of BLM's needs and the basic requirements needed for each Wild Horse & Burro Holding Facility: Wild horses on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service are protected, managed and controlled under the provisions of the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burro Act of December 15, 1971, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1331 1340). As resource conditions and other factors warrant, excess wild horses are removed from the public lands and placed in private maintenance through the Adopt A Horse Program. Horses that have not been adopted because of age or other factors are being cared for on private land. The purpose of this solicitation is to obtain one or more facilities located in the continental United States, each to pasture 500 to 2,500 wild horses. The intent is to provide a pasture setting for these animals while they are cared for on private land. During the first years of this contract the majority of the horses may be younger, adoptable animals that will be shipped and received on a year-round basis. It is the intent of the BLM that the number of animals at the facility will decline during the period of this contract. On December 8, 2004 Public Law 108-341; Section 142 amended the 1971 Wild and Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act ( Public Law 92-195) that requires the BLM to sell excess wild horses and burros which meet the following criteria: Animals that are 11 years of age and older; or Animals that have been offered unsuccessfully at three adoptions. This may require the BLM to remove animals that meet the above criteria from the contracted facility during the course of the contract. All animals that are in too poor of health to be prepared or transported will be released back to the pastures or humanely destroyed to avoid undo suffering. All wild horses that do not meet the above criteria will remain in a free-roaming environment. Based on this Request for Proposal (RFP) the Bureau of Land Management anticipates the award of one or more contracts, each contract having the capacity to maintain 500 to 2,500 wild horses for long term wild horse holding facilities located in the continental United States. Each contract shall be for one (1) base year, plus four (4) option years. The facilities must be prepared for the conduct of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and an inspection for specification compliance, to be performed by the BLM upon contract award. Once a facility meets the minimum requirements of the EA and the specifications contained herein, BLM will begin shipping animals to the facility. This is anticipated to occur within 90 calendar days from the date of award. No payments shall be made until after animals are received at the facilities and have resided at the facility for a full one month period. Contractor will be reimbursed on a per animal feed day basis for the previous month of service. No advance payments are authorized. Award of a contract(s) constitutes the first and only delivery order of the contract. Subsequently, the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) will schedule the delivery and pickup of animals with the Contractor. The objectives of this contract are: To maintain the excess wild horses in pastures large enough to allow free roaming behavior and that can provide the food, water and shelter necessary to sustain the animals in good condition; To gather and prepare all horses in a humane manner that falls under the criterion of saleable or adoptable animals; To minimize the handling of wild horses by humans and sorting of the animals through chutes, gates and corrals; To provide regular, on the ground monitoring of the wild horses to ascertain their well-being and safety; Provide management by individuals who are knowledgeable and experienced about the behavior and nutritional requirements of equines and the management of land for the sustained production of grass and other desirable forage plants. The contractor shall provide all necessary land, facilities, personnel and supplies to perform the following general tasks: Provide land, forage, shelter, salt, minerals, water and fences necessary to properly care for and maintain 500 to 2,500 (Based on the offeror's proposal) wild horses grazing in pastures. The pastures shall be capable of producing sufficient standing forage (12 animal unit months of forage per animal) to provide for most of the nutritional requirements of the animals on a yearlong basis. The contractor must also provide supplemental feed as necessary to maintain the horses in good condition (i.e. during periods of drought, deep snow, ice storms, fire, during times when the forage is depleted of protein content or when other circumstances warrant). Supplemental feeding is not intended to provide the entire forage intake for extended periods while in pastures and shall not be included in carrying capacity determinations; Provide corrals and adequate facilities to load and unload wild horses on an as needed basis; Unload, sort and segregate animals upon their arrival, in the event that additional horses are transported to the facility; Gather and move horses from pasture to pasture as needed, supervise their health and welfare, provide supplementary feed as needed and maintain the facilities in a safe condition; Gather and hold in isolation horses that fall under the criterion of adoptable or saleable wild horses for a minimum of 30 days, until time for shipment; Provide weekly monitoring of the animals to assess their health and determine death loss. Prior to submission of the monthly invoice the contractor will conduct a complete inventory of all wild horses. The results of the each inventory will be included in the monthly invoice. Maintain a record keeping system that documents the frequency and results of these observations; Provide a record keeping system that identifies the location of each horse on site and other information, such as its overall condition, death, etc. Each death will be recorded by the freeze mark and/or description of the animal, date the animal was noted as dead and then submitted on each months invoice. The records shall be made available for duplication within 5 days after a request is made by the COR and/or PI; Dispose of the remains of dead horses. The contractor may be required to euthanize horses that are suffering or are in pain, as an act of mercy. Handling and Gathering: In the event that animals are transported to the facility, they will normally arrive at the site in trailer loads of approximately 35-40 head per load. The contractor will provide a telephone number where they can be reached 24 hours per day for scheduling shipments. BLM will attempt to schedule shipments for daytime arrival. However, horses shall be unloaded immediately, regardless of arrival time. The contractor will unload, sort by age, and condition, if determined to be appropriate by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) and/or the Project Inspector (PI), into various groups; All horses shall be handled, treated and maintained in a humane manner. Horses in corrals and chutes shall be worked in a manner that minimizes excitement of the horses to prevent injuries from crowding or trampling; Gathering or movement of horses from pastures shall be done with the concurrence of the COR and/or PI, except in emergency conditions, when the contractor determines an immediate gather or movement is necessary for the safety and welfare of the horses. The contractor shall notify the COR and/or PI within 24 hours after such movement. Handling of the horses will be kept to a minimum. However, it may be necessary to move the horses from one pasture to another because of range management practices; Gathering for the purpose of removing animals will be conducted when it is deemed necessary by the COR/PI. The gather time will be determined by the COR and/or PI. A BLM designated representative will be on site during the gather. The gather will be conducted in a humane manner. Horses will be maintained in a corral area or small holding pasture for a minimum of 30 days, until notified by the COR and/or PI for shipment. Contractor will provide sufficient labor and facilities to move and sort horses during holding prior to shipment; The contractor will be notified by the COR and/or PI one week prior to gathering of the animals. The COR and/or PI will notify the contractor of the number of animals that need to be gathered, prepared and shipped. Corral/holding Facility -Corrals may be permanent or temporary (portable panels). It is anticipated that the corrals will be used to receive, hold, gather, ship and prepare horses. The corrals must be at least 72 inches high and made of stoutly constructed material i.e. pipe, steel, lumber, etc. No barbed wire will be allowed in the construction of corrals and any corral constructed of mesh wire (openings no larger than 2 by 4 inches) must be equipped with at least 3 wood sight boards (2 by 8 inches) located on the upper portion of the fence. The three sight boards shall be spaced no more than 12 inches apart. Corrals constructed of pipe or wood must have openings of not more than 12 inches between horizontal members. Corrals and holding areas need to be free of protrusions, and hazards. Corral gates shall be constructed of wood or pipe the same height as the fences. Gates shall be visible to the horses either from the materials used in construction or by using materials such as plywood or plastic mesh placed on the gates. The contractor will furnish a stable area (concrete or gravel) to place a hydraulic squeeze chute provided by the Bureau. If electricity is unavailable the Bureau will provide a generator to run the hydraulic chute; Two sorting corrals, each with a minimum of 2,500 square feet, which would be used for holding horses for short term (up to five days prior to shipment); Soil types in corrals/pens must be well drained and non-alkaline in nature. Slopes within the pens shall provide for adequate drainage; At least two or more small pastures to maintain approximately 150 wild horses prior to shipment (30 days or more) will be necessary. These pastures need to be accessible to the working corral, and constructed to have fencing to hold foals if needed during the weaning process. Fencing must be constructed of small wire mesh, low to the ground to prevent a foal from going under the fencing; The small pastures, described under (5) above, must have sufficient water for 150 wild horses at a rate of 16 gallons per animal, per day; Adequate chutes and crowding alleys to facilitate gathering, preparing, and shipping animals; The runway must have solid sides, have at least three sliding gates, be solidly constructed of steel or lumber, be at least 36feet in length, 28-32 inches wide, and at least 72 inches tall. Unloading and Working Facility - The facility shall have a loading and unloading chute, sufficient to safely unload and load semi trailer trucks and small stock trailers. Chutes shall have solid sides which restrict the animal's vision and will minimize the risk that animals may attempt to jump out of the chute. Width of the chute must be at least 32 inches. Fences shall be at a minimum of 72 inches high, stoutly constructed and made of lumber, pipe, or steel. Fences - Perimeter fences shall be a minimum of 48 inches in height and completely enclose the facility. Pasture division fences shall be a minimum of 48 inches in height. All pasture fences shall consist of four strands of barbed wire or other acceptable fencing materials. If determined by the COR and/or PI, it may be necessary for the contractor to flag certain fences with eight (8) inches of flagging attached to the top horizontal member of the fence every 20 feet to make the fences more visible to the horses. Gates, rather than cattle guards, shall be used at all fence openings to keep horses in pastures. Pastures - The facility shall have sufficient land and forage to sustain 500 to 2,500 (depending on the offeror's proposal) wild horses year round. The land must be privately owned by the offeror or the offeror must have long term control of the offered lands. Offered lands cannot include public lands, BLM wild horse and burro herd areas, herd management areas or Forest Service Wild Horse and Burro Territory. If any public lands, are within the privately owned or controlled land, the public lands must be fenced out and will not be used in the calculation of the stocking rate. The private lands must be at least 10 miles from any BLM Wild Horse and Burro Herd Management Area, Herd Area and/or Forest Service Wild Horse and Burro Territory. It is the responsibility of the offeror to verify that offered lands meet this requirement. Information on the location of BLM Wild Horse and Burro Herd Management Areas, Herd Areas and/or Forest Service Wild Horse and Burro Territory can be obtained by the Forest Service office or, for BLM land, by the BLM local office or the Wild Horse and Burro web site (www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov.) Pastures shall be of sufficient size to allow horses freedom of movement and exercise necessary for good health and to continue their free roaming behavior. Pastures shall be free of hazards such as unfenced paved public highways. If pastures are noncontiguous, they shall be managed as separate units, (no more than four units) each with a corral facility. Horses shall not be moved from one unit to another except under extraordinary conditions and with the permission of the COR and/or PI. The maximum allowable driving distance between all units combined shall be no greater than fifty (50) miles; Sufficient land and forage shall be made available for the number of horses maintained. However, as the herd is reduced by mortality or removal, pastures may be converted to domestic livestock use by the contractor, provided the use does not interfere with the wild horses. Stocking domestic horses adjacent to or with the wild horses is unacceptable; The available standing vegetation in pastures must be of sufficient nutritive quality and quantity to maintain the horses in good condition yearlong, with supplemental feeding as described in paragraph f, below. Good condition is described as follows: ribs cannot be visually distinguished, but can be easily felt; backbone is not visible; hip bones do not show; withers are distinguishable but do not protrude; shoulders and neck blend smoothly into the body; The stocking rate for the site shall be adjusted as necessary to assure horses are maintained in good condition, as described above; Shelter from the natural elements shall be provided in each pasture by the topography (e.g., canyons, hills, etc.), other natural features such as trees, or manmade structures; Vegetation monitoring will be done by qualified personnel. If vegetation utilization exceeds the moderate level, changes may need to be made so land health standards are maintained. Supplemental Feed - Supplemental feed (primarily hay) shall be available at the site to feed the horses when natural forage nutritional value is low. Supplemental feed shall be of such quality and fed in sufficient quantity to sustain the horses in good condition. Supplemental feed shall not be fed to individual horses in declining health because of age and other natural causes. Hay used as supplemental feed shall have a protein content of no less than 12 percent, be leafy, green, well cured, properly stored and free of dust, and mold. Feed will be required daily for animals maintained in the corral areas, and supplemental feed will be required for pastured animals only during times when natural forage will not maintain the animals in good condition. For example this could be during the winter months when the forage nutritional value is low. Horses maintained in corrals shall be fed hay in sufficient quantity to sustain the horses in good condition. Hay used shall have a protein content of 12 percent, be leafy, green, well cured, and free of dust, mold and weeds or grasses deemed unhealthy forage for wild horses. Feed Requirements - A good quality grass, grass/legume mix or legume hay shall be fed to and made available in sufficient quantity for each animal, with a crude protein not less than 12 percent. While the animals are in the corral areas, they shall be fed at least 2.5 percent of body weight per day. The COR may test supplement or hay to verify its quality; Inclement weather will stress animals, requiring that the volume of feed be increased to maintain their body flesh. Water, Minerals, and Salt - Each pasture shall have reliable water sources capable of supplying 16 gallons of clean water per horse, per day. The maximum distance to water in any pasture shall be 4 miles; Granulated, rock, or block salt shall be accessible to all horses in each pasture; Minerals necessary to maintain the horses in good condition and that are deficient in the available forage in the care unit shall be provided to all horses in each pasture, either as a supplement or added to the salt. Deaths and Disposal of Remains - Dead horses shall be identified by freeze number and physical description to the extent possible, and disposed of in accordance with State and/or local sanitation laws. Rendering plants may be used for carcass disposal provided no compensation is received by any agency or individual disposing of the remains. The contractor shall notify the COR and/or PI, or designated representative immediately if the death of a horse is suspicious and it appears that a postmortem examination should be performed by a veterinarian. The COR and/or PI shall hire a veterinarian and make the arrangements for this procedure. Observation of Horses - The wild horses shall be observed by the contractor at a minimum of one (1) time per week, to determine the overall condition of the animals, and any deaths. Observation will be conducted more frequently when conditions warrant, i.e., during flooding, tornados, and the fire seasons, to ascertain their safety and well being and assure that fences are properly maintained. Except in emergency situations, observations shall be carried out on foot, from a vehicle, or horseback. In unusual situations, such as deep snow, etc., which make ground transportation impractical, aircraft may be used, with the prior approval of the COR and/or PI. Prior to submission of the monthly invoice the contractor will conduct a complete inventory of all wild horses. Records that document, as a minimum, the date of the observation, number and condition of the horses, problems and concerns of the observer, and the name(s) of individual(s) making the observation shall be maintained. Any problems or concerns shall be reported to the COR and/or PI within 24 hours of discovery. Access to the Facility - Access to the unloading and loading chute shall accommodate both sedans with trailers and semi-trucks. Access shall be available during inclement weather. Observation for the Public - The site is not intended to be a public viewing area. Therefore, the contractor will restrict or prohibit access onto the site by the general public; The contractor shall notify the COR and/or PI within 24 hours of any request from humane organizations, general public, media or wild horse interest groups, to observe the horses. All such organizations and groups may be allowed to tour the site only under the approval and guidance of the COR and/or PI; All requests to view the animals shall be directed to the COR and/or PI. Records - An inventory that identifies all horses delivered to the site shall be kept at the facility. A record shall be kept on the location (pasture) each horse occupies. Each horse may be identified with a 4 digit freeze number on the hip, along with an angle freeze mark on the left side of the neck. Horses that die shall be identified as soon as possible and noted on the monthly inventory. Probable cause of death shall also be noted. Upon request by the COR and/or PI, the record shall be made available within 5 days for duplicating. Veterinary Care - The BLM will provide and pay for a veterinarian to treat sick or injured horses, as deemed necessary by the COR and/or PI. The veterinarian may be used to perform euthanasia on horses and conduct postmortem examinations as requested by the COR and/or PI. The contractor shall gather and hold such animals and assist the veterinarian if necessary; All vaccinations and preparation for shipment of horses will be conducted by the BLM with assistance from the contractor. Farrier Services - The COR and/or PI will determine if horses should have their feet trimmed. BLM will make the arrangements and hire a farrier if trimming is needed. The contractor shall gather the horses needing trimming and assist the farrier. Working of Horses - The BLM will provide the hydraulic squeeze chute, generator if needed and any necessary panels to work horses to be shipped from the facility. This may also be used to work horses in case of an outbreak of disease. The panels and chute will be in the working corral area of the facility, and be able to tie into the loading chute area. This is not intended to be a complete list of the specifications. The full requirement will be posted in solicitation NAR080108, which will be available at http://www.fbo.gov on or about June 16, 2008. This requirement is 100% set aside for small businesses under NAICS 115210. Hard copies of the solicitation will not be provided. Facsimile proposals will not be accepted. Vendors must be registered at http://www.ccr.gov to be considered for award.
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