SPECIAL NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD TO SOLE SOURCE

Notice of Intent to Sole Source Award THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT AND IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Joint Administrative Operations, Acquisition & Property Operations.

USFWS Assistant Regional Director Conservation Partnerships intends to award a firm fixed price sole source contract under the authority of (FAR) Part 13.106-1(b) for purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold of $250,000: Point Reyes Bird Observatory 3820 Cypress Drive Suite 11 Petaluma, California 94954-6964 The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541620, Environmental Consulting Services.

This is a unique service, currently being provided by Point Blue. Any new provider would need to develop machine learning models and provide comparable data to what has been used in past analysis for data consistency. Water Tracker has been used in a variety of ways from applied science to guiding decision-making and conservation planning. The timing and availability of water was included in bioenergetics models for non-breeding shorebirds (Dybala et al.

2017) used for recent conservation planning by the Central Valley Joint Venture (CVJV 2020). Researchers have applied the archive of Water Tracker data to assess the impact of the recent drought on water and wetland habitat (Reiter et al. 2018, Reiter and Jongsomjit 2019, Byrd et al. 2020) and consequently on the bioenergetics and distributions of shorebirds and waterfowl (Barbaree et al. 2020, Matchett et al. 2021; Golet et al. In prep.).

Water Tracker data have been foundational in the development of new spatially explicit shorebird (Conlisk et al. In review; Robinson et al. 2020), waterfowl (Conlisk et al. In prep), and giant garter snake distribution models that have refined our understanding of potential versus actual habitat throughout the planning year and are actively guiding seasonal dynamic conservation incentive program implementation (Reynolds et al. 2017).

Water Tracker time-series data were used to populate recently developed models of groundwater recharge and the first spatially explicit models of water and wetland change in the Central Valley under various scenarios of land-use and climate change (Wilson et al. In review). Recently, data from Water Tracker were used to help develop the Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the Grasslands Groundwater Sustainability Agency.

This synopsis does not constitute a solicitation; however, if any interested party believes they can meet the above requirement, it may submit a statement of capabilities. The statement of capabilities must be submitted in writing and must contain clear and convincing evidence that competition of this requirement would be advantageous to the Government.

If parties choose to respond, any cost associated with preparation and submission of data or any other cost incurred in response to this announcement are the sole responsibility of the respondent and will not be reimbursed by the Government. Capability statements shall be submitted by e-mail ONLY as a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF attachment to the following address: Mary_Rawlinson@fws.gov. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS/OFFERS WILL BE HONORED