Specifications include, but are not limited to: 1. The Contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supervision, transportation, supplies, and incidentals to perform all work necessary on the areas specified. All work under this Contract shall be performed in an organized, systematic manner to assure that entire units are treated and no portions of any unit get skipped. a. Use of motorized equipment other than hand-held equipment such as power saws and brush cutters shall not be permitted off designated roads in the project area without prior approval of the COR. b. Work will not be permitted when, in the opinion of the COR, excessive soil disturbance would result from equipment usage or road/trail damage would occur from vehicles gaining access to the project area. c. Unit boundaries are flagged with orange ribbon and are painted on three (3) sides of the cutting unit boundary trees with vertical stripes of orange paint extending from diameter breast height (DBH) upwards approximately 2 feet. Where a cutting unit is adjacent to a system road, the road is the boundary and no paint was used. d. No non-commercial thinning shall occur between May 1st to August 15th to protect flammulated owl in areas identified on Exhibit A as flammulated owl timing restricted area. Potential exceptions to this restriction in units 1 & 2 may be possible upon written permission from the State forester-in-charge with consultation from the Boise National Forest. 2. Reduce the occurrence of the true firs (grand fir and subalpine fir) in the project area by thinning trees 8 inches and less in diameter measured at breast height (dbh). Retain submerchantable seral species such as healthy western larch, ponderosa pine, and Douglasfir. Thin stands to an average of 60 or 75 basal area (BA), depending on existing stand structure and desired species composition. a. Leave trees shall generally be ponderosa pine (PP), western larch (WL) and Douglas-fir (DF). Incidental species to leave are Engelmann spruce (ES), lodpepole pine (LP) and aspen (AS). Do not cut live western larch or aspen. Leave all live and dead whitebark pine. b. Grand fir and subalpine fir existing in the unit that fall into the sub-merchantable (< 8 inches dbh) category shall be cut. c. Sub-merchantable trees of all species (< 8 inches dbh) shall be cut if they occur within 15 feet from the bole of a healthy leave tree (> 8 inches dbh). This includes any trees within the dripline of a leave tree. d. The minimum tree size for thinning shall be 12 inches in height. e. Cut ES, LP, and DF that show substantial signs of insects, disease (e.g. mistletoe), broken tops, are deformed (crooks, forked top, deep scars or damage to the bark on more than ¼ of the circumference of the tree), or have a live crown ratio <35 percent. f. No thinning shall occur within the Riparian Conservation Area (RCA) which is within 130 feet of any perennial or intermittent stream. 2. Cut trees shall be felled away from the following: unit boundaries, roads, power lines, established trails, ATV/motorcycle trails, gates, established fire-breaks, fence lines, established land corners, designated leave trees, drainage ditches, culverts, and perennial and intermittent streams. Any trees falling on such areas shall be removed per slash treatment below. Cut trees shall not be criss-crossed or jackstrawed when felled. a. Cut material greater than 4” dbh will be lopped and scattered so that slash depth does not exceed 36”. Material less than 4” dbh does not need to be bucked into smaller pieces. b. Trees shall be completely severed from the stump on a horizontal plane. Stump height shall not exceed 6 inches above the ground or 4 inches above natural obstacles. Diagonal cuts resulting in a sharp, pointed stump are unacceptable. c. Cut trees shall be cut below the lowest live limb, except when prevented by natural obstacles. When natural obstacles are found, all live limbs over 4 inches in length below the cutting point shall be removed. d. Cut trees shall be directionally felled away from leave trees and groups. Felling into the surrounding open area will eliminate the accumulation of slash among the remaining trees. e. All slash created by operations performed under this contract shall be removed from cutslopes and pulled back at least 5 feet from top of roadcut displayed on the attached contract map. f. All slash created by operations performed under this contract shall be removed at least 15 feet above all culvert intakes.
