CITY OF ORTING, WASHINGTON

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

2025 FORESTRY MANAGEMENT

I. PURPOSE OF REQUEST

 The City of Orting ("City") is soliciting Proposals from qualified firms for Forestry Management consulting services to assist us in managing three forested parcels. The City does not have experience managing, marketing, or creating a sustainable investment from forest land and requires the assistance of an experienced consultant to help us with these tasks. The following parcels are currently contemplated for management:

• Pierce County Parcel No. 0518062003, that has just under 20 acres of mature trees that are ripe for harvest. The parcel is the city’s old dump site.
• Pierce County Parcel No. 0519362005, about 32 acres of trees. Unclear as to the suitability of harvest. The parcel is adjacent to one of the city’s water sources.
• Pierce County Parcel No. 0518084002, about 10 acres. Unclear as to the suitability of harvest. The parcel is adjacent to one of the city’s water sources.
• Pierce County Parcel No. 0418011001, about ¾ acres. Unclear as to the suitability of harvest. The parcel is part of the city’s cemetery parcel, but south of Orting Kapowsin HWY E.

II. TIME SCHEDULE

The City will adhere to the following timetable:

Issue RFP: July 22, 2025

Deadline for Questions: August 5, 2025

Deadline for Submittal of Responses to RFP: August 5, 2025 at 4 pm. Pacific Time

Award of Contract: September or October 2025

III. INSTRUCTIONS TO PROPOSERS

A.  All responses shall be sent electronically to the following two city email addresses:

Scott Larson, City Administrator at slarson@cityoforting.org, City Clerk at clerk@cityoforting.org

B. The content of the proposal shall include the following:

1. Cover Letter: Brief introduction and project interest, signed by an authorized firm representative.
2. Qualifications: Relevant experience and examples of past performance for similar projects. Please identify if you have experience working with Cities, or Counties.
3. Approach: Outline of the firm’s methodology for completing the scope of work below in Section 6.
4. Team: Identification of key personnel and their roles.
5. Cost: Total project cost and itemized breakdown.
6. Timeline: Timeline to complete.
7. Format:
   • Limited to 14 pages single sided.
   • Pictures, Figures, Images, or similar elements included must support the proposals requirements.
   • Color is allowed.
8. Detailed qualifications and relevant experience to perform the required services and be clearly marked “Proposal for the City of Orting 2025 Forestry Management Project”.

C. Any questions concerning the City's specifications or RFP process shall be directed to Scott Larson, at clerk@cityoforting.org or (253) 355-5166. 

D. The firm must include a statement in their cover letter that they will meet the city’s required minimum insurance coverage as shown below to be eligible to be awarded a contract

1. Workers’ compensation and employer's liability in amounts required by law;
2. Commercial general liability with limits of liability not less than $2,000,000;
3. Automobile liability insurance with limits of liability not less than $2,000,000;
4. Professional Liability with limits of liability not less than $2,000,000.

IV. SELECTION CRITERIA

Your Proposal will be evaluated on the following criteria and responses as they relate to the purpose and scope listed in section VI (25 points each):

1. Qualifications: Relevant experience and examples of past performance for similar sized cities.
2. Approach: Outline of the firm’s methodology for completing the scope of work below in Section 6.
3. Team: Identification of key personnel and their roles.
4. Cost: Total project cost and itemized breakdown including roles and rates for each role with minimum and maximum rates per role.
5. Schedule: Timeline to complete the project.

V. TERMS AND CONDITIONS

A. The City reserves the right to reject any and all responses, and to waive minor irregularities in any Proposals.

B. The City reserves the right to request clarification of information submitted, and to request additional information from any contractor.

C. The City reserves the right to award any contract to the next most qualified contractor, if the successful contractor does not execute a contract within thirty (30) days after the selection of the contractor.

D. The contract resulting from acceptance of a proposal by the City shall be in a form supplied or approved by the City and shall reflect the specifications in this RFP.

E. The City shall not be responsible for any costs incurred by the firm in preparing, submitting or presenting its response to the RFP.

F. The City encourages minority and women-owned firms to submit proposals consistent with the City's policy to ensure that minority and women-owned firms are afforded the maximum practicable opportunity to compete for and obtain public contracts for services.

VI. SCOPE OF SERVICES AND REQUIREMENTS.

A. Provide a sustainable forestry plan that allows the city to manage its forest property as a long-term investment.

B. Advise on harvest of existing timber resources.

C. Assist the city in acquiring required permits to harvest timber resources.

D. Assist the city in marketing and harvesting the timber.

E. Assist the city in replanting and managing the property after harvest as a long-term investment.

F. Provide recommendations on other related services that the city should consider in the management of its forest property.

VII. COMPENSATION

A. The award shall be made to the qualified bidder whose proposal is most advantageous to the municipality with price and other factors considered. The municipality may reject any and all proposals for good cause and request new proposals.

B. Payment by the City for the services will only be made after the services have been performed. Payment shall be made in accordance with the terms set forth in the contract. 

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED - 7.31.2025 - 11:45am

QUESTION: Scope Item C: Are all property lines established and apparent? If surveying is required to establish property lines would the cost be covered by the City or would this be the Consulting Forester's responsibility? 

ANSWER: To our knowledge nothing is surveyed. I think we are looking for advice as part of the management plan/proposal on what the scope of a survey would be. I would say this should be part of the services the consulting forester would provide the city.

QUESTION: Scope Item D: Would the City like a price for the actual logging or just the organization and management of the project?  

 ANSWER: At this moment I am looking for prices on the management of the project – probably by parcel as it isn’t clear they can all be logged. I would expect the consulting forest to help us solicit proposals and pricing to do the logging when we are ready.

QUESTION: Scope Item E:  Is the City looking for a bid for the cost of trees and planting or is this only for the management of the process? Also is the "managing the property after harvest as a long-term investment" statement only in regard to the initial reforestation or would the City like to retain a forester for a number of years for follow up inspections and the management of vegetation control and replanting if needed? The issue I see is that planting can have high mortality for a number of natural reasons, so this bid line item could be as little as one additional site inspection visit or multiple visits and management of replanting. I would be happy to continue managing the tree farm, but it would need to be transitioned to a time and materials type of contract beyond an agreed upon scope. 

 ANSWER: We want the cost to manage the replanting and the long-term management of the forest. Since this will likely be variable based on how the site does with replanting, perhaps you can assume periodic site inspections, and managing one follow up replanting – additional management services would be on a time and materials agreement

QUESTION: Scope Item F: Should this item be used as a follow-up or amendment to the Forest Management Plan following harvest? A robust plan should address this topic, though I could see the potential need for additional information following a harvest. 

ANSWER: If there are any services that you know about at this moment I would identify it. I think it is fair to say that additional services may be identified as the consultant studies the forests and would propose pricing on those services based on time and materials.

QUESTION: In general, the questions were if our $1M Auto policy with an $2M umbrella liability would meet the requirement?

ANSWER:  The best way to figure out insurance would be to send us your insurance certificate to review.

QUESTION: Would payments occur at the completion of each scope of service task or at the completion of the project.

 ANSWER:  We are focused on bottom line price for scoring purposes, so you can propose whatever payment structure you want, but we can’t agree to providing payment before delivery of services.