British Columbia / Ministry of Forests / / Silviculture Contract
FOR STAND TENDING -- PRUNING
SILVICULTURE CONTRACT ADMIN. NO: / ATTACHMENT TO CONTRACT DATED THE ______DAY OF ______, 19 ___.FS 348A HSP 04/07Page 1 of 1
SCHEDULE "A"
ARTICLE 1: GENERAL CONDITIONS
Definitions
1.01In this Schedule and all additional Pruning Schedules:
“Branch Canker” means an abnormal growth on a branch;
“Danger Tree” means a live or dead tree, whose trunk, root system or branches have deteriorated or been damaged to such an extent as to be a potential danger to human safety;
“Flush” means as close as possible to the stem which does not extend past the basal swelling of the branch;
“Intertree Distance” means the horizontal distance between two adjacent pruned or prunable trees specified in Schedule B;
“No Treatment Zone” means an area within which no pruning takes place;
“Opening” means a contiguous area that, before treatment, has an average diameter greater than twice the target Intertree Distance;
“Pruning” means the removal of all lower dead and living branches on living trees to a specified height on specified trees within the Work Area;
“Scarring” means damage to the stem that exposes the wood beneath the bark;
“Slash Removal Zone” means an area within which all slash created as a result of the work is removed;
“Snag” means a standing dead tree greater than three meters height;
"Stand Management Prescription" means a document for describing actions to be carried out on a free growing site to: ensure that stand management activities are planned and implemented to maintain or enhance the inherent productivity of the site; ensure resource values including biological diversity are identified and accommodated; and set out a series of stand management activities to produce a stand capable of meeting the stated management objectives; and
“Stem Canker” means an abnormal growth on the main stem.
Initials / Initials(Contractor) / (Province)
Amendments and Supplements
1.02The specifications in this Schedule may be amended or further supplemented in the other Schedules to this Contract or in the Work Progress Plan.
Provision of Work Area
1.03Except as otherwise provided for in this Contract, the Province shall permit the Contractor to conduct pruning on the Work Area.
Insurance Requirements
1.04The Contractor shall, without limiting its obligations or liabilities herein and at its own expense, provide and maintain the following insurances with insurers licensed in British Columbia and in forms and amounts acceptable to the Province. The Contractor shall provide the Province with evidence of all such required insurance before the commencement of the Work. Such evidence shall be in the form of a completed Province of British Columbia Certificate of Insurance (Form Risk 02). When requested by the Province, the Contractor shall provide certified copies of required policies.
(a)Comprehensive General Liability in an amount not less than two million dollars ($2,000,000) inclusive per occurrence against bodily injury and property damage. The Province is to be added as an additional insured under this policy. Such insurance shall include, but not be limited to:
Products and Completed Operations Liability,
Blanket Written Contractual Liability,
Contingent Employer's Liability,
Personal Injury Liability,
Non-Owned Automobile Liability,
Cross-Liability,
Employees as Additional Insured,
Broad Form Property Damage, and
Forest Fire Fighting Expense Coverage in an amount of at least one million dollars ($1,000,000);
(b)Automobile Liability on all vehicles owned, operated or licensed in the name of the Contractor, in an amount not less than one million dollars ($1,000,000);
(c)all the foregoing insurance shall be primary and not require the sharing of any loss by any insurer of the Province;
(d)all insurance except ICBC automobile liability insurance shall be endorsed to provide the Province with 30 days advance written notice of cancellation or material change; and
(e)the Contractor hereby waives all rights of recourse against the Province with regard to damage to the Contractor's property.
ARTICLE 2:STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE AND WORK PROGRESS - PRUNING
Selection of Prunable Trees
2.01The Contractor shall select trees to prune in accordance with this part. Without limiting the generality of this, no trees listed in Schedule B as trees exempt from pruning, shall be pruned.
2.02The Contractor will prune only those trees which meet the preferred species and minimum height requirements specified in Schedule B.
2.03Where the “Total Stems per hectare” and the “Stems per hectare to Prune” figures are entered in Schedule B and they differ, as an additional qualification to paragraph 2.02, the Contractor shall select and prune the latter stems per hectare of those trees which combine the greatest number of the following characteristics:
(a)dominant and co-dominant tree;
(b)free of injury and disease;
(c)full crown;
(d)straight stem;
(e)free from forks or multiple tops;
(f)small branches;
(g)good terminal growth;
(h)good colour;
(i)large stem diameter; and
(j)less than 10 main branches in each annual whorl.
Pruning Technique
2.04Subject to this Contract, the Contractor shall prune:
(a)selected trees to the height or percent of residual live crown (whichever is less) as specified in Schedule B subject to this Contract; and
(b)if no percent live crown is specified in Schedule B, the pruning height specification shall prevail across all stems pruned.
Equipment
2.05The Contractor shall only use pruning shears and pruning saws (hand or pole type). Axes, sandviks, and machetes will not be allowed under any circumstances. Other pruning tools may be approved as determined by the Ministry Officer.
Treatment Around Openings
2.06The Contractor shall, around the edge of an Opening, temporarily decrease the Intertree Distance by up to 50% to compensate for trees missing from the Opening.
2.07The number of additional leave trees that the Contractor shall conserve around an Opening shall be equivalent to the number of leave trees that the Opening could accommodate at the target Intertree Distance specified in Schedule B.
No Treatment Zones and Slash Removal Zones
2.08The Contractor shall establish No Treatment Zones and/or Slash Removal Zones in accordance with Schedule B for each area delineated on the Work Area map.
2.09The Contractor shall:
(a)distribute slash so that it is not left leaning against any tree; and
(b)remove and redistribute within the pruned stand any slash or debris which, as a result of the Work, occupies a Slash Removal Zone or any road, road bank, stream, ditch, fireguard or adjacent standing timber.
Snags and Wildlife Trees
2.10The Contractor shall:
(a)leave uncut all wildlife trees; and
(b)establish a No Treatment Zone with a radius of 1.5 times the height of the Snag or tree around:
- any Wildlife Tree which is also a Danger Tree, and
- any Danger Tree which the Contractor is not able to fall safely.
If the Snag or tree is not on level ground, or only a portion of the height of the tree is considered dangerous, the width of the No Treatment Zone can be modified (see Guidelines for Maintaining Biodiversity During Juvenile Spacing, 1993. FRDA II);
(c)fall, in accordance with Workers’ Compensation Act and Regulations, all other Danger Trees prior to commencement of pruning; and
(d)provide competent and experienced Snag fallers to conduct falling of Danger Trees.
Trees Exempt from Pruning
2.11The Contractor shall not damage living trees exempt from pruning. For the context of this paragraph, damage shall consist of the removal of branches from the upper 30% of live crown, removal of branches in the upper three whorls, or scarring or severing of the leader. Provided no such damage occurs, there shall be no penalty levied should the Contractor prune those trees which are listed as exempt from pruning in Schedule B.
ARTICLE 3:INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE
Pruning Inspection
3.01The Province shall inspect Payment Areas in accordance with the conditions of this contract.
3.02A series of sample plots shall be established evenly distributed throughout the Payment Area and, at each plot, the following information shall be recorded:
(a)the total number of trees;
(b)the number of prunable trees;
(c)particulars of pruned trees, which may include species diameter at breast height (DBH) or other measurements deemed necessary;
(d)the number and codes of reworkable errors. A maximum of one error should be counted for each tree with non-reworkable errors taking precedent over reworkable errors;
“Reworkable error” means a pruning error which can be corrected. These include:
[R1] - Missed tree,
[R2] - Live and/or dead limbs below pruning height,
[R3] - Limbs not completely severed from stem,
[R4] - Stub length or angled cut greater than 0.5 cm from branch collar,
[R5] - More than two internodal branchlets (“internodal branchlets” are small branches less than 3 cm long which originate from the stem of the tree and are located between the major whorls),
[R6] - Pruning poor-form trees when a well-formed tree is within the allowable intertree distance, and
[R7] - Pruning the incorrect species when a good-form primary species exists within the allowable Intertree Distance;
(e)other Contract requirements which are reworkable;
(f)the number of non-reworkable errors;
“Non-reworkable error” means a pruning error which cannot be corrected. These include:
[NR1] - Pruning too high up the tree to a level greater than stated in Schedule B, and
[NR2] - Scarring of the stem exposing the cambium layer over an area greater than that of the largest pruned branch scar on the tree;
(g)other Contract requirements which are non-reworkable; and
(h)any instances of non-compliance with other Contract specifications.
3.03If subcontracting has been allowed under this agreement the Province may perform a walkthrough assessment of any or all of the Payment Areas to determine if the Work was performed in accordance with specifications of Schedules B and C attached hereto, and in the Work Progress Plan. Where the Ministry Representative believes the work is not done to an acceptable standard the formal survey that is appropriate for the Treatment Type will be used.
ARTICLE 4:MEASUREMENT AND PAYMENT
Basis of Payment
4.01If the Work is to be performed on a bid price per unit area basis, the basic payment shall be determined by multiplying the area treated by the bid price per hectare stipulated in Schedule B.
4.02If the Work is to be performed on a bid price per Work Unit basis, the basic payment shall be determined by summing the price, as specified in Schedule B, for all Work Units satisfactorily treated within the Payment Area.
4.03If the Work is to be performed on a bid price per tree basis the basic payment shall be determined by multiplying the number of trees treated by the bid price per tree stipulated in Schedule B.
4.04The basic payment shall be subject to a performance quality (P.Q.) adjustment as determined by paragraphs 4.06 and 4.07, and other assessments as are specified in this Contract.
Quality Adjustment of Payment
4.05All reworkable and non-reworkable errors will be calculated. The methods of calculation are as follows:
(i) Reworkable error %=No. of Reworkable Errors x 100
No. of Prunable Trees
(ii) Non-Reworkable error %=No. of Non-Reworkable Errors x 200
No. of Prunable Trees
4.06The Performance Quality (P.Q.) achieved by the Contractor will be determined by applying the following formula:
P.Q.=100%- Reworkable Error %- Non-Reworkable Error %
4.07Upon determining the P.Q., the basic payment will be adjusted by applying the following formula:
Payment %* = (P.Q. X 1.08) - [100 - (P.Q. X 1.08)]2
8
* Maximum of 100%
4.08If there are more than the minimum number of pruned trees in a plot, the trees which most closely meet the intertree distance and species selection will be the ones to be evaluated for quality. All stems in a plot are to be checked for pruning damage.
Payment Reductions
4.09If the results of an inspection indicate that a payment area, or a portion thereof, is unsatisfactorily treated and cannot be improved by reworking, the Province shall not make any payment for the unsatisfactorily treated area.
ARTICLE 5:NON-COMPLIANCE AND TERMINATION
Unsatisfactory Work Quality
5.01Despite the foregoing provisions for the calculation of payments, whenever a walk-through assessment or an inspection (or both) indicates that the Work quality is below 75%, based on paragraph 4.06, for the Work Unit, the Province shall consider the Contractor’s performance to be unsatisfactory, and the Province shall notify the Contractor in writing.
5.02Any notice given to the Contractor for unsatisfactory performance shall specify whether or not the Province wishes to exercise its option to require the Contractor to rework the substandard area(s) within the Work Unit. If areas are to be reworked, the notice shall specify a deadline by which time the Contractor must have, at his own expense, improved the quality of Work within the Treatment Unit to at least the minimum acceptable standard 75% quality.
5.03Should the Contractor fail to comply with a notice from the Province that demands that the quality of the Work in the Work Unit be raised to an acceptable standard by a specified deadline, the Province shall make no payment for that Work Unit and may terminate this Contract forthwith.
5.04If after giving notice under paragraph 5.01, an inspection of further Work indicates that Work quality is again below 75% quality, and in the opinion of the Province creates damage to the trees, the Province may impose an assessment under paragraph 5.05.
Pruning Damage to Trees
5.05If in the opinion of the Province the trees are being damaged (either designated trees for pruning or trees exempt from pruning) by excessive live crown reduction (less than three whorls of branches left on the tree), stem scarring (exposed cambium over an area greater than that of the largest pruned branch scar on the tree.) or any other causes of damage, the Province may impose an additional assessment of one hundred dollars ($100) against the Contractor for each such infraction causing damage to the trees occurring within the inspection plots.
Failure to Establish No Treatment Zones
5.06If the Contractor fails to establish a No Treatment Zone, as specified in this Contract, the Province may reduce the basic payment by two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) for each such occurrence.
Non-Production or Under-Production
5.07Subject to paragraph 5.08, where the Ministry Officer determines that the Contractor has either failed to commence work on the date specified or has not met the specified production rates, the Province may, as an alternative to terminating the Contract, impose an assessment.
5.08An assessment made pursuant to paragraph 5.07 shall be in the form of either a fixed dollar amount or may vary as a function of the amount by which the Contractor has failed to meet specified production rates. The methods by which the assessments are to be determined shall be specified in Schedule C or in the Work Progress Plan.
5.09For the purposes of imposing an assessment subject to paragraph 5.07, no notice is required to be given by the Province to the Contractor.
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