PL25TFH005 East Kootenay Planting

This invitation to tender is to tree plant approximately 910,000 seedlings (including overflow planting units) over 715 ha (including overflow planting units) within the Rocky Mountain District.  Planting units vary from 1st plant right after harvesting, fill planting and replanting post wildfire burn.

Planting units are located in the following geographic areas or drainages; Flathead, Rocky/Teepee, Moyie, Lost Dog/Mather, Kootenay, Kootenay Eastside, Dutch, and Lavington.  A KML file with Planting unit locations can be found within Appendix l.  

Approximately 145,000 fertilizer tea bags will be installed in conjunction with planting of seedlings on specified Planting units.  A fertilizer allocation spreadsheet outlining which planting units the fertilizer tea bags will be used on can be found under Appendix ll.  Fertilizer tea bags will be planted as per instructions outlined in Schedule C 2.04.  All fertilizer tea bags will be supplied by BCTS.

The contractor is required to complete thaw requests at least 10 days prior to planting (to be approved by the ministry official) and for transport of seedlings from Hawkeye Holdings Ltd in Kelowna, BC to the planting site. The contactor will require at least one refrigerated unit capable of storing 100,000 seedlings. Once thawed, seedlings must be planted within 10 days. 
See the contract documents for full details of the above and other duties of the Contractor.

Questions & Answers
All contract related questions must be submitted in writing ONLY to the following email address: Forests.KootenayTimberSalesOffice@gov.bc.ca.  Deadline for receiving questions is 12:00 pm on October 23, 2023.  If questions are received, a Question & Answer document will be posted to BC Bid by  October 24, 2023.
    
Tender submissions must be submitted in accordance with the terms and conditions specified in the tender package.
    
If your bid deposit is in the form of cash, money order, certified cheque or bank draft, you will not be able to e-bid. See allowable submission delivery method(s) above. Also see Conditions of Tender for acceptable bid securities.

The lowest priced or any tender will not necessarily be accepted.

This Solicitation is using the BCTS Planting Contractor Rating System to evaluate tenders.  Please see the ‘Information to Bidders’ for Tendering Process and ‘Frequently Asked Questions and BCTS-Planting Contracting Rating Form’ documents for information on the Rating System.

Be aware that BCTS has made changes to its EMS and SFM programs to meet the updated 2022 Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Forest Management Standard. Changes impacting BCTS clients include new training requirements (Table 008-1, 008-1A, Tailgate Training, SFI Awareness documents, and new Indigenous rights awareness training, as well as changes to training frequency and a new continuing education component). In addition, note changes to EMS/SFM Environmental Field Procedures and Incident Reporting Procedures which occurred June 1, 2022. 

Supervisors and workers will need to be familiar with these changes prior to commencement of operations. These documents are posted on our external EMS/SFM website at BC Timber Sales - Business Area Environmental Management System (EMS) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) - Province of British Columbia (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/bc-timber-sales/forest-certification/ems-sfm).  More information on SFI available at www.forests.org.

Unverified bid results will be posted to BC Bid after tender opening and once awarded the contract award results will be available on BC Bid.
    
Please see the following website for
important BCTS Contracting advisory notices and guidance information:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/bc-timber-sales/contracting
    
Timber Sales Manager
Kootenay Business Area
BC Timber Sales