Wood for Work

WISDOM–The BeaverheadDeerlodge National Forest is about to make its first foray into new way of doing business.
It’s called “ stewardship con tracting” , and Forest Service and local officials are hoping that it will both help the Beaverhead County econo my and
get some work accomplished in the woods.

By Perry Backus of the Montana Standard

The propos al calls for trading wood for work. The successful bid der on a tim ber sale in the West Pioneer Mountains, east of Wisdom, will do a
variety of work for the agency in exchange for the timber.
“ This is the first one of these projects on the BeaverheadDeerlodge,” said Dennis Havig, the agency’s Wisdom District Ranger.

Congress authorized the concept of stewardship contracting about three years ago, Havig said. “ The whole philosophy behind stewardship
contracting is to try and get some work done in the woods that we wouldn’t ordinarily
Wood …

do,” said Havig.
Projects include building fence, spraying weeds, doing some burning, rebuilding some roads, installing gates on roads, putting structures in streams
to help fish, and doing work on trailheads and campgrounds.

Havig said the process allows the agency to look at the quality of the workmanship the bidder offers and if the work will be done by local labor.
“ We don’t have to take the high est bid,” he said. “ There are other factors we can consider.”
The concept is called “ best value acquisition,” he said. “ We will look at a variety of different values, including the experience of the contractor
and the quality of the proposal…we will put value into hiring locally.”

Beaverhead County Commissioner Donna Sevalstad said the county is taking a hard look at the bid process and talking with local contractors about
the possibility of trying to put together a proposal.
“ We feel like there is a lot of potential for this process,” Sevalstad said. “ It’s just getting through it the first time that’s diffi cult. We have a lot of
people who are interested in working on this.”

Sevalstad said a local group put together the winning bid in Priest River, Idaho, on a much larger sale.
“ They made so much money on the project they were able to distribute some back to the local schools,” she said.
Havig said this timber sale is an estimated 2.5 million board feet, of which about a third is post and pole material.
Bids will be taken on the sale until Aug. 5.

Prospective bidders can attend an informational meeting July 8 at 10 a.m. at the Forest Service office in Dillon.
For more information on stewardship contracting, call Jeff Trejo at the Forest Service office in Wise River at 832-3178. To get a copy of the bid
solicitation, call Karen Weidenbaugh at the Forest Service’s Dillon office at 683-3983.

http://www.mtstandard.com/newsregional/regnews11.html