CITY OF KIMBERLEY 340 Spokane Street

Kimberley, B.C. V1A 2E8

INTERFACE FUEL HAZARD REDUCTION PROJECT REQUEST FOR TENDER

Contract No. FM-2018-KNP Location: Kimberley Nordic Park

Contents

1. General Terms and Conditions for Tender Submissions ……... 1

2. Specific Terms for FM-2018-KNP Tender Submissions ………. 1

3. Project Details ……………………………………………………. 2

4. Terms and Conditions for Successful Bidders …………………. 3

Attachment A: Tender Submission Cover Sheet …………………... 4

Schedule 1: Stand Management Prescription …………………….... 5

Schedule 2: Treatment Standards …………………………………... 10

1

Contract No. FM-2018-KNP CITY OF KIMBERLEY

1. GENERAL TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR TENDER SUBMISSIONS

a. The City of Kimberley is accepting written Tenders for an Interface Fuel Hazard Reduction Project near the geographic area of the Kimberley Nordic Park.

b. The City of Kimberley reserves the right to reject any or all of the Tenders received.

c. Tenders not meeting the general conditions shall be considered incomplete and will be rejected on that basis.

d. Applicants will be expected to provide the following: i. Proof of past successful completion of similar projects, and;

ii. References of similar interface work performed. e. Tenders stipulating qualifying clauses and the lowest or any Tender will not

necessarily be accepted. f. Contract award will be based on price, demonstrated experience of the type of

work required in this contract and equipment availability. g. A fax communication revising the amount of a properly signed and delivered

Tender Form is acceptable provided the amount of increase and decrease only is stated in words and figures (not the original and final amount), and the fax is received prior to the deadline for receipt of Tenders.

h. This Tender is deemed to include PST and not GST. i. All Tenders must be signed by an authorized signatory of the Company

2. SPECIFIC TERMS FOR FM-2018-FCE TENDER SUBMISSION

a. Sealed Tender packages for the Interface Treatment will be received by the Fire Chief, City of Kimberley, up to 11:00 am (local time) on Tuesday, May 22, 2018.

b. Tender submission packages shall be clearly marked: City of Kimberley - Tender Submission FM-2018-KNP 340 Spokane Street Kimberley, B.C. V1A 2E8 Attn: Fire Chief

c. Tender submission packages shall include a completed ‘Attachment A: City of

Kimberley Tender Submission Cover Document’ d. A mandatory site viewing is required with the following conditions

i. All bidders are required to attend a mandatory site viewing on Monday, May 7, 2018, Kimberley Fire Station 1, 340 Spokane St., at 09:00 hrs.

ii. Preregister for the site viewing by email to Rprasad@Kimberley.ca iii. The successful bidder will be deemed to have visited the site and have

made themselves familiar with the conditions, nature of the ground, means of access, water supply and all other local conditions affecting the execution of work.

2

e. Additional Tender information and other particulars may be obtained from the City of Kimberley at 340 Spokane Street, Kimberley B.C.

f. Inquiries should be directed to the City of Kimberley Fire Chief by: • phone at (250) 427-4114 • fax at (250)-427-5252 • email at rprasad@kimberley.ca

3. PROJECT DETAILS

a. Project Purpose: To reduce the interface fuel hazard in the area of Kimberley Nordic Park.

b. Site: Kimberley Nordic Park Directions:

• From the Fire Hall (City Hall) travel south on Wallinger Avenue to Ross Street/Kimberley Avenue

• Turn right (west) and proceed to Spokane Street and Gerry Sorenson Way

• Travel south on Gerry Sorenson Way to North Star Drive • Proceed south on North Star Drive to the entrance to the

Kimberley Nordic Area.

Note: A more complete description of the interface area can be found in the Stand Management Prescription attached to this document as Schedule 1.

c. Scope of Work: The work to be carried out under this contract consists of the

following plus all other items included in the prescription and treatment standards attached to this document as Schedule 1 and Schedule 2.

i Dispose of all woody surface fuels >7.5 cm in diameter through pile

burning or chipping (pile dimensions to conform to criteria in the City’s Pile Burning SOP).

ii Retain all western larch stems <17.5 cm DBH (target inter-tree spacing is 10m).

iii Remove all Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, western red cedar, and western hemlock stems (live and dead) <17.5 cm DBH and all lodge pole pine <12.5 cm DBH (live and dead). All material will be piled and burned on-site with pile dimensions and locations conforming to treatment standards in the City’s Pile Burning SOP, or chipped and blown back on site. Chip depths are stipulated in the SOP.

iv Access to the unit is through the gate at the entrance to the Kimberley Nordic Area (north end of the unit). The contractor will be given a key at the outset of the project and will surrender the key upon successful completion of the project. The contractor will not copy the key. The gate on North Star Drive is to be locked behind the contractor while on the unit working.

3

v During periods of poor road conditions (spring melt and summer rain storms) the contractor is to stay off the roads/trails. The contractor is permitted to use a 4WD vehicle and/or ATV on the roads/trails.

d. Time of Work: The entire project is to start June 1, 2018 and be completed on or before November 17, 2019.

4. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL BIDDERS

a. Prior to the commencement of the project, THE COMPANY shall provide a list of all equipment to be used on this project including make, model and year to the CITY

b. THE COMPANY will be responsible for completing the Interface Hazard

Reduction Project in accordance with the attached prescription and treatment standards attached to this document as Schedule 1 and Schedule 2.

c. Delivery of the works shall be required not later than the time specified for

completion of the works as detailed in 3(d) of this document.

d. Successful bidder(s) must acquire, at their own expense, all permits, business licenses and other licenses and insurance necessary or required to fulfill the contract.

e. Prior to signing the contract, the successful bidder must show proof that his/her

company is registered with the Workers’ Compensation Board (Work Safe BC) and if the company owner forms part of the actual workforce, that he/she has applied to Worker Compensation Board for coverage as a worker.

f. Prior to signing the contract, the successful bidder must show proof of insurance

with general liability insurance of $3,000,000 and forest fire fighting Expense coverage with a minimum value of $5,000,000.

g. Prior to the commencement of any work the Company will have a business

license with the City of Kimberley.

h. There will be not binding agreement with the City until a formal contract has been executed by both the proponent and the City.

Attachment A

4

TENDER SUBMISSION COVER DOCUMENT (This form must accompany all Tender Submissions)

To the City of Kimberley Fire Chief File: Kimberley Nature Park 340 Spokane St. Contract No.: FM-2018-KNP V1A 2E8 Kimberley, British Columbia We hereby agree to perform the Interface Hazard Reduction Project at the Kimberley Nordic Park Area, Kimberley BC in accordance with the attached specifications and all as furnished with this Tender Form, for the price as shown below and to complete the work by November 17, 2019. We have satisfied ourselves concerning conditions at the site. We confirm that we are in good standing with the BC Corporate Registry and have submitted the current year’s annual report as required by the Companies Act. We are registered in good standing with the Workers’ Compensation Board (WorksafeBC), Number ________________, and if not, we undertake to register forthwith and advise the City of Kimberley with the number allotted to us. We have thoroughly reviewed the Tender Package provided by the City of Kimberley and understand all of the requirements and conditions prescribed. The amount of the Tender includes PST and not GST. I OFFER TO COMPLETE THE WORKS FOR: $_______________________

(including PST & not GST)

COMPANY’S AUTHORIZED SIGNING OFFICER Legal Company Name

Address: Postal Code:

Phone:

Signature Title Date

Schedule 1

5

Schedule 1

6

Schedule 1

7

Schedule 1

8

Schedule 1

9

Schedule 2

10

Surface and Aerial Fuel Loading and Treatment Standards in the Wildland‐Urban Interface

The City of Kimberley has established Surface and Aerial Fuel Loading Standards and Treatment Standards as part of their ongoing wildfire hazard mitigation program. Any projects carried out by the City conform to these standards, which were developed by a professional fire ecologist and fire behavior analyst.

Objectives Surface Fuel Loading affects fire behavior, and subsequently, wildfire suppression success, firefighter safety, and wildfire resilience. Our fire management goal in the Wildland‐Urban Interface is to attack fire quickly and safely and with overwhelming resources in order to keep the fire small and to prevent it from building any momentum and causing excessive damage to both human resources and natural resources. Our primary metric is fire intensity: “a measure of the rate of heat released by a fire.” Fire intensity is directly proportional to a surface fuelbeds’ heat of combustion, the amount of fuel consu med , and a fires rate of spread. Fire intensity is a very useful way to assess wildfire containment. Direct attack with hand tools and assured control is possible when fireline intensity is less than 400‐425 kW/m/s. Heavy equipment, such as bulldozers and engines, can usually control a fire if fireline intensity is below 1700‐1750 kW/m/s. Wildfires are completely uncontrollable with fireline intensities above 3500‐3700 kW/m/s. Our working fire intensity threshold for a composite fire crew with hand tools and an engine is therefore set at 500 kW/m/s.

Aerial Fuel Loading affects fire behavior in the vertical plane and is much more difficult to assess than surface fire. Assessing Fire Intensity

As stated above, fire intensity is a measure of the heat content of the fuelbed, the amount of fuel consumed, and the rate of fire spread. High fire intensity is therefore a combination of a volatile fuelbed (fuels with high heat content), a large accumulation of very dry fuel, and factors that increase rate of spread such as steep slopes and high winds. Of these input variables we can only manage the fuelbed and often only a portion of the fuelbed. For example, Figure 1 and Table 1 provide a fuelbed and it’s resultant fire intensity by fuel category.

Schedule 2

11

Figure 1. Photo of surface fuels in a lodgepole pine harvest unit.

Table 1. Fire intensity by fuel category for a logged lodgepole pine unit with grass.

Fuel category

Heat content (kJ/kg)

Pre‐burn fuel load (kg/m²)

Consumed (%)

Consumed (kg/m²)

Rate of spread (m/s)

Fire intensity (kW/m/s)

Herbaceous 2905 0.08 100 0.08 0.21 48.8 0.0‐0.6 cm 18000 0.08 100 0.08 0.21 302.4 0.6‐2.5 cm 18000 1.10 100 1.10 0.21 4,158.0 2.5‐7.5 cm 18000 2.04 100 2.04 0.21 7,711.2 >7.5 cm 18000 4.56 66 3.01 0.21 11,377.8

The photo in Figure 1 doesn’t suggest a great deal of fuel loading exists post‐harvest; however, the fuel load is enough to produce a substantial amount of fire intensity as can be seen in Table 1. The herbaceous and fine twigs alone on this site could result in a fire intensity of 350 kW/m/s under the right conditions.

Under most conditions following overstory thinning a robust herbaceous layer will get established. This layer alone can contribute 50 kW/m/s, or 10% of fire intensity out of an allowable 500. The remainder is in the form of twigs, branches, and logs. Large diameter logs can contribute some energy to fire intensity, but most of its energy is released during long‐term smoldering. Large logs are more problematic in that they require a great deal more water resources to extinguish once ignited and this can cause control problems if water resources are scarce. Therefore, the focus of treatment must be on twigs, branches, and most but not all large logs.

Schedule 2

12

Assessing Surface Fuel Load

Assessing the amount of fuel on a site by fuel size class is difficult unless you’ve spent many hours inventorying fuels. It’s not expected that contractors or quality control supervisors will be putting in inventory plots pre‐treatment and re‐inventorying as they go until they reach the standard. Instead, the standard is based on a qualitative assessment using photo fuel appraisal guides. Photo fuel appraisal guides are a set of fuelbed photos and accompanying inventory and assessment of potential fire behavior. A series of guide photos are included in Appendix 1 that represent fuelbeds that meet the City’s standard. For fire behavior appraisal, the City used mid‐ to late‐summer fuel moisture and windspeed conditions and a slope of 10%. Assessing Canopy Characteristics That Contribute to Crown Fire

Three canopy characteristics have a significant impact on crown fire initiation and propagation: canopy base height, canopy fuel load, and canopy bulk density. Tree height, crown ratio, tree density, crown class, and proportion of crown by fuel size class are used to determine canopy base height, canopy fuel loading, and canopy bulk density. For an individual tree, the measurement of the height to the base of the crown produces crown base height for that individual tree. The average of these values for all trees in a stand would give an estimate of the base of the stand canopy height. Frequently, this is a measure of where the limbs of the canopy start vertically but the number can be skewed by the presence of small trees. Mathematically, canopy bulk density (CBD) is canopy biomass divided by the volume occupied by crown fuels. Canopy fuel loading is simply the weight of aerial fuels expressed in either kg/m3 or tons/acre. Setting a standard for aerial fuel conditions that would minimize crown fire initiation is difficult because there are many variables involved: surface fuel loading, surface fuel depth, slope, canopy base height, windspeed at the time of the fire, etc. From a forest structure perspective, canopy base height above approximately 2‐3 m is an adequate standard that can be met either by thinning small diameter trees or pruning trees. This, in conjunction with surface fuel clean‐up, will help reduce the probability of torching, or crown fire initiation. The standard for minimizing crown fire propagation is based solely on canopy bulk density, which is set at an upper limit of 0.0111 kg/m³. In addition to these two very specific stand structure values we also use two other indexes to help us assess the level of crown fire initiation and propagation hazard. These two indexes are the Torching Index and Crowning Index.

Treatment Standards in the Wildland‐Urban Interface

Manual Piling and Burning

1. Material to pile:

Schedule 2

13

In units where hand‐piling is required crews will fell all trees targeted for removal. These trees may be marked with spray paint in some cases or simply identified in a written prescription by species and diameter at breast height or total height. Trees are to be cut at a maximum of 30 cm stump height and below the first live limb if that limb is below 30 cm.

Trees are to be cut “flush” and not “angled”.

Felled trees are to be “limbed” and then “bucked” into maximum 1.5 m lengths.

After felling the target trees crews are to collect up all material and pile it in piles meeting the pile size, orientation, construction and location criteria outlined below.

Schedule 2

14

In addition to felled material, crews are also to collect up all surface fuel material >2.5 cm in diameter to the extent that the forest floor resembles the conditions in the attached photo fuel appraisal series. This includes both live and dead material as well as deciduous and coniferous material. Old, large logs that have begun to decompose, as evidenced by visible rot, softening of the heartwood, or frass, need not be piled unless they are abundant. Areas where there is little slash and hand piles would be small and hard to light or the slash would have to be carried for a long distance to make a pile, can and should be skipped. Use your judgment. Do not clean up all the slash to make the stand look like a park. We need to leave some of the slash for long‐ term site productivity. The idea is to break fuel continuity and reduce fire intensity.

2. Construction of hand‐piles: Piles shall be constructed as far as possible from the base and crown of leave trees as conditions permit.

Piles shall NOT BE CONSTRUCTED on top of old “spring‐board” stumps, within the intake/discharge areas of culverts, or within 2 m of a fence line. Piles SHOULD however, be placed on top of beetle infested lodgepole and ponderosa pine stumps wherever possible.

Piles shall not be constructed in or on hiking trails, system or spur roads shown on the contract maps. Piles shall be constructed such that all piled slash is perpendicular to the contour of the unit’s slope. Piles shall be constructed as compactly as possible, with a core of fine material at the bottom of the pile to act as kindling and with heavier, larger diameter material placed on top of the pile. A 1.0 m x 1.0 m piece of butcher paper is to be placed on the top of each pile and secured in place with a log or two.

Schedule 2

15

Piles shall be at least 1.3 m, but not more than 2 m high, and at least 1.3 m but not more than 2 m in diameter. Slash exceeding 2 m in length shall be bucked into 1.3 m lengths before piling. Material protruding out of the pile beyond the compact portion shall be bucked off and added to the pile to facilitate disposal by burning.

Any piles not meeting specifications shall be reconstructed at no additional cost to the City. Hand piles will be burned in place during the fall/winter using hand‐held drip torches and a mixture of gasoline and diesel. In some cases petrol‐gel packs and FireQuick™ “stubbies” may also be used to light piles. All precautions will be made regarding smoke dispersal and safety. A prescribed burn plan will be written and submitted to the city prior to burning operations.

Chipping

One other option for surface fuel clean‐up and disposal is to chip the material back onto the site using a small, portable chipper. This option has the advantage of not resulting in emissions from the burning of piles. However, there are ecological and economic limitations to the use of portable chippers. The

Schedule 2

16

depth of material must be kept below 20 cm so that plants can still grow through the chipped layer (see Figure 3). The depth of the chipped layer must also be shallow enough that if it did ignite the smoldering residence time would be minimized. Economically, chipping also has its limitations. The chipper is relegated to roads or trails and material must be brought to it either mechanically (small caterpillar tractor or ATV) or manually. Our experience suggests that crews can efficiently drag small material 20 m downhill and 10 m uphill before productivity falls off. The size of material is also problematic: too small material is difficult and awkward to carry/drag, and too large material is too heavy to drag. We recommend that chipping be used were burning cannot be used and in close proximity to roads and trails.

Schedule 2

17

Appendix 1: Photo Series for Use on City Projects

Schedule 2

18

Schedule 2

19

Schedule 2

20