Fire Ecology Research

Solicitation / RFP / RFQ

This is a solicitation for commercial services for the USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Fire Ecology research projects. The objective is to diagnose how fire response strategies vary with statewide characteristics in California's diverse shrublands and provide research in digital formats. The government is procuring research and data synthesis to understand the impact of fire frequency on resource conservation and balance hazard reduction with resource conservation.

• Analyze the distribution of shrub species based on postfire response.

• Analyze topographic characteristics, vegetation characteristics, and soil types.

• Extract historical fire perimeter data to analyze past fires.

• Diagnose how fire response strategies vary with statewide characteristics.

• Provide research and all data in appropriate file formats via USB or FTP.

• Deliver all physical products to the USGS point of contact.

• Contract Type: Firm fixed-price purchase order.

• Period of Performance: July 1, 2026, to December 31, 2026.

• NAICS Code: 541620 Environmental Consulting Services.

• Size Standard: $19.0

• Submission Deadline: April 13, 2026, by 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

• Submission Method: Email quotes and documents to Anthony Berry at amberry@ios.doi.gov. Physical submissions and late submissions will not be accepted.

• Evaluation Factors: Technical capability (including technical approach, relevant experience, and personnel qualifications), past performance, and price. Technical capability and past performance are significantly more important than price.

• Quote Requirements: Signed SF18, any applicable amendments, and a firm fixed-price quote with a full breakdown.

• Not specified as a small business set-aside.

• This solicitation is prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6.

• The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are current through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2026-01, effective March 13, 2026.

• Key personnel qualifications include a PhD scientist with experience in spatial databases, California climate, fire history, multivariate statistical techniques, and R statistical programming.

• Payment requests must be submitted electronically through the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Internet Processing Platform System (IPP).

Statement of Work (SOW) / Performance Work Statement (PWS)

This work supports the USGS Western Ecological Research Center’s Fire Ecology research projects, focusing on understanding how fire frequency impacts resource conservation in California's diverse shrublands. The goal is to balance hazard reduction through prescription burning with the conservation of natural resources, particularly considering the negative impacts of high-frequency fires on obligate-seeding shrub species.

• Analyze the distribution of shrub species based on their postfire response.
• Analyze topographic, vegetation, and soil characteristics.
• Extract historical fire perimeter data to analyze past fires.
• Diagnose how fire response strategies vary with statewide characteristics.
• Provide research in digital formats.

All research files and physical products must be delivered in appropriate file formats via USB or transmitted through an FTP site to identified USGS points of contact upon award.

• Period of Performance: 07-01-2026 to 12-31-2026.

• Place of Performance: Contractor's facility.

• Key personnel must include a research scientist with a PhD and demonstrable experience in spatial databases for analyzing California climate, weather, land use change, wildland-urban interface, NDVI imagery, and fire history. Experience in studying climatic drivers of historical fire activity, mapping fire regimes, and assessing impacts of altered fire regimes on native ecosystems is required.

• Must have ready access to statewide NDVI and vegetation maps, and historical maps.

• Extensive experience in multivariate statistical techniques (classification trees, random forests, gams, glms, unsupervised cluster analysis) is necessary.

• Demonstrable experience using R statistical programming.

• Thorough knowledge of past research papers on fire-induced type conversion in chaparral and relating findings to models predicting fire hazard thresholds and impacts on vegetation types.

• Demonstrable experience with the use of fire history data in California.