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76 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, September 16, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 18, 2004 BLM invites look at ‘pre-bid’ for Williams stewardship project By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Local residents seeking a bigger voice in how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management manages its lands now have an opportunity to roll up their sleeves. The BLM’s Medford District is offering a contract to local residents for the 100-acre Penny Stew stewardship project near Williams in the Williams Creek drainage. An informational "pre-bid" session assisting potential contractors will be held from 10 a.m. until noon today at the BLM district office at 3040 Biddle Road, Medford. A visit to the site will follow at 1 p.m. The project is the result of a bill passed by Congress last year which gives the agency the authority to issue stewardship contracts, explained Terry Fairbanks, a supervisory forester with the BLM’s Grants Pass Resource Area. Advertisement The stewardship is one of a half-dozen such contracts being offered by the BLM in Oregon this year. The Ashland Resource Area already has a stewardship contract under way. "Local (Williams) residents have been asking us to put a stewardship contract together — we tried to design one that wasn’t too big and not too small," Fairbanks said. The purpose of the project is to thin the vegetation on BLM land near rural homes to reduce the fire hazard while providing local employment. "We want to reduce the fuel load and we’d like to see people from the community do it," she said. "We want them to show us how to go about doing it. There are some interesting possibilities with this stewardship." The types of treatments that could be used include thinning the forest, cutting brush, removing biomass material, hand piling and burning and grading 2.85 miles of roads. A small amount of commercial timber and other material estimated at $20,000 is expected to be produced, Fairbanks said. The contractor would also be paid about $50,000 for the service work in the three-year contract, she added. "We would pay them to do the contract," she explained, noting the value of the timber will be used to offset a portion of the other treatment required under the contract. The contract, which could start this fall, isn’t something expected to interest a commercial timber firm, she observed. "No timber purchaser would look at something like this because it is too little," she said, adding that some who are new to the world of contracting may make a bid. "A contractor would need to know a little about forest management," she said. "But they wouldn’t have to know how to do road work or fuels reduction. They could subcontract." She reiterated that the project’s main goal is fuel reduction in the wildlands interface near the community. "Instead of having one person come in and do each activity, a contractor will develop a proposal to do all the activities," she said. Information on BLM contract procedures is available on the Internet at www.or.blm.gov/procurement Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities