Specifications include, but are not limited to: Contractor agrees to provide to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (CAL FIRE) Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (BOF) Forest Industry Infrastructure Capacity Assessment and Needs Analysis by CALVEG Sub-Region, as described herein: 1) California’s primary wood products processing infrastructure is approximately in balance with current and near-term log supply projections. Based on the experience of the last five (5) years though, industry infrastructure has been challenged when there are salvage log supply surges caused by wildfires and insect/disease infestations. There is also the added challenge posed when significant volumes of larger logs (greater than 18-22 inches, small end diameter) and certain species (such as sugar pine) are part of the log supply surges. In addition, questions have been raised about the availability of processing capacity needed to help meet the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force stated goal of one million (1,000,000) acres per year of forest restoration and hazardous fuels treatments (on public and private lands): California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (wildfiretaskforce.org). Note: For the purposes of this project, ‘infrastructure’ includes the ecosystem of people, skills, businesses, education, research, and financing necessary to plan and implement economically feasible projects that contribute to forest restoration and reduce hazardous fuels. 2) The purpose of this project is to generally characterize current industry infrastructure by sub-region, as defined by Classification and Assessment with Landsat of Visible Ecological Groupings (CALVEG) mapping zones (Region 5 - Resource Management (usda.gov)), as well as volume and type of supply necessary to retain and sustain the industry infrastructure needed to accomplish relevant California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force goals. This analysis is not intended to be specific to individual processing facilities. In addition, an analysis of current and reasonably recent successful efforts to increase pace and scale of ecosystem restoration and hazardous fuels reduction within California is required. Contractor shall provide all materials, labor, equipment, tools, permits, taxes, transportation, and fees to generally characterize current industry infrastructure and analyze efforts to grow ecosystem restoration and hazardous fuels reduction within California.
