West Sand Island Habitat Restoration Project – Follow-Up Treatment
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST) is seeking a contractor to conduct herbicide treatments on West Sand Island, located in the Columbia River’s Baker Bay, just south of the town of Ilwaco, Washington. Though much closer to the Washington shore, West Sand Island is in Clatsop County, Oregon. The project is sponsored by CREST and the Bonneville Power Administration. Work is to be completed in May of 2021, with a precise timeline to be agreed upon by CREST and the selected contractor.
CREST requires a firm with direct experience conducting foliar and cut stump herbicide treatments near wetlands. Experience with marine and riparian logistics are a plus, as the site can only be reached by boat and is subject to tides and bad weather. The selected firm will be required to secure its own daily transit to/from the island and for transporting water for mixing herbicide, as there is no usable water source on the island.
West Sand Island is approximately 415 acres in size, and includes large sections of coastal wet deciduous forest, scrub-shrub, and coastal prairie. In August/September of 2020, CREST contracted the mechanical removal (excavators with masticator heads) of the invasive shrubs gorse and Scotch broom on 65 acres along the northern and eastern shores, and 10 additional acres of shrub removal by hand in the island’s interior. CREST also contracted the excavation of 23 tidal channels to connect interior wetlands to the Columbia River during high tides, primarily to benefit ESA-listed salmonids. Areas immediately adjacent to those tidal channels will be replanted with native stock in February of 2021.
In order to prevent gorse and Scotch broom from reinvading the 2020 project area, CREST now seeks a contractor to conduct targeted foliar herbicide treatments of those two shrubs on up to 105.6 acres. Of those 105.6 acres, 72.89 acres are in the primary bid item, and the remainder is in 3 smaller bid items to be completed as budget allows. Few mature shrubs remain within the work areas, and crews will be primarily targeting newly emerged plants and young shrubs less than 3 ft tall. Additionally, the contractor will provide staff to work in tandem with a 5-person Northwest Youth Corps crew for two weeks (10 working days) in May 2021 for the purpose of applying herbicide to the stumps of shrubs cut down by the Youth Corps (Northwest Youth Corps crews do not have herbicide applicator’s licenses). The Contractor will not be expected to cut any shrubs.
Please submit proposals in PDF format by 4:00 PM on February 5th, 2021. Details are included in the RFP.
Please direct questions to Tracy Hruska, Habitat Restoration Project Manager at
[email protected] (preferred) or at (503) 325-0485 ext. 222.
CREST requires a firm with direct experience conducting foliar and cut stump herbicide treatments near wetlands. Experience with marine and riparian logistics are a plus, as the site can only be reached by boat and is subject to tides and bad weather. The selected firm will be required to secure its own daily transit to/from the island and for transporting water for mixing herbicide, as there is no usable water source on the island.
West Sand Island is approximately 415 acres in size, and includes large sections of coastal wet deciduous forest, scrub-shrub, and coastal prairie. In August/September of 2020, CREST contracted the mechanical removal (excavators with masticator heads) of the invasive shrubs gorse and Scotch broom on 65 acres along the northern and eastern shores, and 10 additional acres of shrub removal by hand in the island’s interior. CREST also contracted the excavation of 23 tidal channels to connect interior wetlands to the Columbia River during high tides, primarily to benefit ESA-listed salmonids. Areas immediately adjacent to those tidal channels will be replanted with native stock in February of 2021.
In order to prevent gorse and Scotch broom from reinvading the 2020 project area, CREST now seeks a contractor to conduct targeted foliar herbicide treatments of those two shrubs on up to 105.6 acres. Of those 105.6 acres, 72.89 acres are in the primary bid item, and the remainder is in 3 smaller bid items to be completed as budget allows. Few mature shrubs remain within the work areas, and crews will be primarily targeting newly emerged plants and young shrubs less than 3 ft tall. Additionally, the contractor will provide staff to work in tandem with a 5-person Northwest Youth Corps crew for two weeks (10 working days) in May 2021 for the purpose of applying herbicide to the stumps of shrubs cut down by the Youth Corps (Northwest Youth Corps crews do not have herbicide applicator’s licenses). The Contractor will not be expected to cut any shrubs.
Please submit proposals in PDF format by 4:00 PM on February 5th, 2021. Details are included in the RFP.
Please direct questions to Tracy Hruska, Habitat Restoration Project Manager at
[email protected] (preferred) or at (503) 325-0485 ext. 222.