2020 Public Bid Results

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Nov 13, 2019 3:55 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Williams Lake

Contract: PL21TLE002
Client: BCTS Williams Lake
# of Trees: 1,814,982
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: November 13, 2019
Option To Renew: No
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Left on the Table: 1.5%

This is the third of four contracts for BCTS in Williams Lake.

01. $ 852,398 - 46.9 cents/tree - Coast Range
02. $ 865,209 - 47.7 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $ 990,591 - 54.6 cents/tree - NGR
04. $1,033,285 - 55.3 cents/tree - Apex
05. $1,239,840 - 56.9 cents/tree - Celtic
06. $1,632,455 - 89.9 cents/tree - Seneca

ggrant · Post by **ggrant** » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:26 pm

Just on the topic of lumber prices and log prices, don't forget that there is approximately a 20% duty and tariff on lumber exported to the USA, which is 70%+ of BC's production. So the companies are not getting the full amount. Beetle kill and fires have reduced timber supply in parts of the province, especially the bread basket through Burns Lake, PG, the Cariboo and down into Merritt and the Okanagan. The well-informed industry watchers say that there are still a few more mill closures to come.

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:37 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Williams Lake

Contract: PL21TJE003
Client: BCTS Williams Lake
# of Trees: 1,910,784
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: November 19, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 29.4%

This is the first of five or six contracts that I'll be posting that opened over the past four days.

This one is an eye-opener. Another massive amount left on the table, because the bidder didn't realize just how few companies still have the capacity to accept new contracts. For perspective, this is the SEVENTH planting job this year where a contractor left over 20% on the table, and the second job where the amount was 29.4% of the bid.

What's even more incredible is that despite the large amount left on the table, this is the second highest winning bid that we've ever seen in the Williams Lake region. Having connections to Folklore, I can say that the word "blind-sided" is probably appropriate for the reaction when this bid was opened. My own camp worked on similar blocks in this exact area this past season and the bid price for that contract (PL20TLE002) was 44.2 cents per tree. The most recent similar Williams Lake contract went to Coast Range last week at 46.9 cents per tree. So the price here is amazing in a historical context, but yet could have been much higher.

There is a good lesson here for the rest of the industry. Even though this is a great price, it could have been higher. I think we are about to see some very uncharacteristic behaviour in the rest of the public bids this season, and this bid (plus another one that I'll post in a few minutes from Burns Lake) reinforce that belief. I won't try to defend this particular bid since I do work for Folklore for part of the year, but I will use the other Burns Lake bid to illustrate why there's such a strange dichotomy happening right now in bids like this one, which are simultaneously great and misjudged.

01. $ 979,675 - 51.3 cents/tree - Folklore
02. $1,268,305 - 66.4 cents/tree - Apex
03. $1,412,850 - 73.9 cents/tree - Celtic

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:50 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Mackenzie

Contract: PL21TGE005
Client: BCTS Mackenzie
# of Trees: 3,108,417
Season: Spring/Summer 2020
Opened: November 18th, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No

This one is 1.97 million spring trees and 1.14 million summer trees. There are a total of 1.14 million tea-bags (ferts) on this contract (not necessarily matched to the summer trees).

01. $1,742,668 - 56.1 cents/tree - Spectrum
02. $1,791,925 - 57.6 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $2,091,990 - 67.3 cents/tree - Celtic
04. $2,237,177 - 72.0 cents/tree - Apex

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:01 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Port McNeill

Contract: PL20THD610
Client: BCTS Port McNeill
# of Trees: 628,796
Season: Spring/Fall 2020
Opened: November 19, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Left on the Table: 1.7%

Not much left on the table here. And that was unfortunate for Guilory-Emory (Bivouac) since the spread was thin enough that even though Brinkman had a slightly higher bid, Brinkman's "ranking" price was adjusted downward by the Contractor Rating System sufficiently to put them below GE. Due to this, Brinkman is the winner of the contract for having the lowest bid, BUT they still get to invoice for their submitted bid price rather than the adjusted "ranking" price. This is one of just a handful of contracts over the past three years where the winner has actually been decided thanks to Contractor Rating System adjustments.

01. $599,418 - 95.3 cents/tree - Guilory-Emory
02. $609,642 - 97.0 cents/tree - Brinkman
03. $680,534 - $1.08 per tree - Rainforest
04. $719,496 - $1.14 per tree - Evergreen

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:31 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Mackenzie

Contract: PL21TGE003
Client: BCTS Mackenzie
# of Trees: 2,404,053
Season: Summer 2020
Opened: November 21, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 11.6%

This one is entirely summer work. And I should point something pretty important out here, which a lot of planters aren't aware of. There is a very big disconnect between the overall increase of trees in BC this year and the amount of summer Interior work. The entire increase (of an estimated 40 million trees) is entirely taking place in the spring planting window. This is BAD.

For one thing, if the forest sector wants that many extra trees planted, they should have spread them out with more summer work. But I've ranted about that before, so let's move on.

Although it seems a long time ago now, think back to the summer of 2018. Dozens of contractors were struggling. There were incompletions on some contracts. July trees were being planted at the end of August. Normally there aren't too many posts on facebook of companies looking for planters after May 1st, but the posts just kept coming, several per week. Even small companies with great reputations were struggling to get work done. Anyone with two feet and a heartbeat could get a planting job in hours.

In the fall of 2018, contractors realized as a group that the industry was on the brink of self-destruction, and prices had to rise or else the entire sector would fall apart. And prices did rise. Moderate amounts in the private sector, larger amounts in the public sector.

In the summer of 2019, planters were earning more. They were happier. They weren't quitting part-way through the season. Drop-out rates were down, almost universally. Contracts were [mostly] getting done on time. Companies didn't need to scramble to find employees. Come July, instead of seeing dozens of posts from companies desperate for work, we were seeing dozens of posts from experienced planters who had no work. With only a few exceptions, it was fairly hard to jump onto another company in July, because things were going well and most companies didn't need extra help.

Looking forward to 2020, it's going to be a repeat of 2019, but on an even grander scale. The industry is going to have to hire a larger overall number of planters to get all the spring trees done. And come the start of July, there are suddenly going to be nearly a thousand planters out of work and almost nowhere for them to go. If you're working for a small company that only has spring trees, and you're hoping to extend your season through July, you'd better get on that pretty fast. Summer trees are going to be at a premium. That's why some contracts such as this one are going at much lower average prices. Dynamic needed this work to keep more of their people going into July, and it appears that they're not the only large company. When you see almost all other public contracts going for more than 50 cents, it's not necessarily because of ground conditions; it's because a lot of companies don't have the capacity to plant additional spring trees (but they can easily accommodate more summer work). Foresters should take note.

01. $ 946,399 - 39.4 cents/tree - Dynamic
02. $1,056,258 - 43.9 cents/tree - Coast Range
03. $1,165,318 - 48.5 cents/tree - Apex
04. $1,192,324 - 49.6 cents/tree - Blue Collar
05. $1,275,999 - 53.1 cents/tree - Celtic
06. $1,512,725 - 62.9 cents/tree - Folklore

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:54 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Burns Lake

Contract: PL21TAS0101
Client: BCTS Burns Lake
# of Trees: 1,849,160
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: November 19, 2019
Left on the Table: 29.6%

Here's another example of the new normal. Is the low price a bad price for the job? No, I don't think so. But yet a large percentage was again left on the table (eighth time > 20% this year).

I didn't want to get into reasons why I thought the earlier Williams Lake job would still be a good job for the planters. However, let me give you some good context on why I think this will still be good for Hybrid 17:

They already had this contract, and didn't need to bid on it. 2020 would be the third year of a multi-year agreement. That agreement started in 2018, and the bid price on the contract was 26 cents/tree. They decided to drop it, and bid again in the open market. They probably expected that if they won, they would get a price that was more fair. Good gamble. This isn't the first planting company has won this bet recently. Now they got the work back again, and at a price 70% higher than they would have been paid if they had continued with the 2018 multi-year contract.

As for the amount left on the table, nobody wants to be in a position to see that they could have bid a lot higher and still gotten the work. But I think we're going to see several more of these scenarios over the coming weeks, now that so many contractors have reached capacity. Now we just need the private sector to start catching up.

Enough said.

01. $ 818,317 - 44.3 cents/tree - Hybrid 17
02. $1,060,893 - 57.4 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $1,265,829 - 68.5 cents/tree - Waterside Ventures

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:22 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Quesnel

Contract: PL21TLH005
Client: BCTS Quesnel
# of Trees: 3,319,269
Season: Spring & Summer 2020
Opened: November 26, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 4.5%

This contract is mostly spring work (2.7m spring and 620k summer) and has 1.2 million ferts included.

Due to a switch in positions resulting from the Contractor Rating System, Apex is ahead of Seneca in #6, and Seneca is #7. This shouldn't affect the bid award.

It appears that Blue Collar wanted this contract too. It will be interesting to see if someone sneaks in underneath Blue Collar for the other large BCTS Quesnel contract that is opening shortly. Wouldn't that be a heartbreaker? Luckily, there are still a number of contracts to be opened. Lots of trees left, nothing to panic about.

01. $1,584,638 - 47.7 cents/tree - Torrent
02. $1,656,726 - 49.9 cents/tree - Blue Collar
03. $1,994,105 - 60.1 cents/tree - NGR
04. $2,192,412 - 66.1 cents/tree - Folklore
05. $2,212,446 - 66.7 cents/tree - Celtic
06. $2,406,858 - 72.5 cents/tree - Seneca
07. $2,427,670 - 73.1 cents/tree - Apex

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 2:53 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Mackenzie:

Contract: PL21TGE004
Client: BCTS Mackenzie
# of Trees: 2,536,330
Season: Spring/Summer 2020
Opened: November 27, 2019
Left on the Table: 3.1%

This contract has about 1.3 million spring trees and 1.2 million summer trees.

01. $1,080,350 - 42.6 cents/tree - Coast Range
02. $1,113,301 - 43.9 cents/tree - Blue Collar
03. $1,283,691 - 50.6 cents/tree - Spectrum
04. $1,339,057 - 52.8 cents/tree - Artisan
05. $1,343,281 - 53.0 cents/tree - Folklore
06. $1,361,940 - 53.7 cents/tree - Celtic
07. $1,629,893 - 64.3 cents/tree - Apex

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:30 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Fort Nelson

Contract: PL21TDG001
Client: BCTS Fort Nelson
# of Trees: 22,660 (yes, very small)
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: November 28, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: N/A (one bidder)

This one may be a record high price at $3.69 per tree. Does that mean that it's unfair? No, in fact it seems pretty reasonable considering the Overview Document. Let me quote part of it (emphasis mine):

Overview of the Work/Service Required

The project requires the refrigerated transport and storage and planting of 22,660 seedlings in the Fort Nelson TSA. Locations are shown on the overview map. A66578-3 and A66629-002 are accessible by 4WD vehicle, A66615-1 is accessible by helicopter for trees (block requires 100-400m of walking through thick brush with a moderate amount of deadfall from the quad trail). The block can be accessed by quad for the planters but only under dry conditions.

Site Conditions

(a) A66678-3 is located in an area inundated with high pressure sour gas line and active well sites. The road in is subject to poor conditions whenever it rains. This block was manually brushed in summer of 2019 as an experimental treatment designed to eliminate brush species but to retain as much deciduous as possible. There is an over-story of Aspen with some spruce of 1,293 stems per hectare in a very non-homogeneous distribution. The height of this over-story is between 1-2m for spruce and 3-6 m for aspen. There is a goodly amount of fairly continuous brushing slash between 0.3 to 1.2m deep. Walking in this block is difficult but not impossible. This site is mildly horrible. There are also stretches of steep slope present along the northern boundary (20-50% slopes for 30-50m).

(b) A66615-1 is a 10km quad ride in from Highway 77 followed by a 0.1 to 0.4km walk through the bush to reach the block. This block was manually brushed in summer of 2019 as an experimental treatment to eliminate brush species and retain as much deciduous as possible. There is an over-story of aspen with some pine and spruce of 1,200 SPH in a very non-homogeneous distribution. The height of this over-story is between 1-4m for conifer and 4.5 to 10m for deciduous. There is a high amount of fairly continuous brushing slash with a depth between 0.3 to 1.4 m although it should be less by the time of planting. Walking in this block is quite difficult. This block is solidly horrible.

There is the risk of aggressive animal encounters in all blocks as well as in town.

Is it any coincidence that this BCTS office has the same initials as "Transportation of Dangerous Goods?" I think not.

This is a forester that I'd like to work for, telling it like it really is.

01. $83,555 - $3.69 per tree - Whanau Forestry

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 6:13 pm

I started to put together a full-season summary spreadsheet this afternoon and evening. It's not done yet, and I have to run, but I have enough data there that I may as well share it for now.

To date, the AVERAGE WINNING BID price is up 10.4% from one year ago. It currently sits at 49.88 cents. It was slightly above fifty cents for almost the entire season until those two Mackenzie bids dragged it down due to the summer trees.

To date, the AVERAGE OVERALL BID price is up 14.2% from one year ago. The overall average bid price sits at 61.27 cents right now.

These numbers do NOT include any coastal projects.

I'll have this spreadsheet looking much better by next Friday night.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 12:46 pm

Here are the results of a bid for Planting in Quesnel

Contract: PL21TLH006
Client: BCTS Quesnel
# of Trees: 3,834,609
Season: Spring/Summer 2020
Opened: December 3, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 2.6%

NGR with the sixth bid jumped ahead of Seneca to the #5 spot in the line-succession, due to the Contractor Rating System.

01. $1,869,590 - 48.8 cents/tree - Apex
02. $1,918,226 - 50.0 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $2,199,306 - 57.4 cents/tree - Celtic
04. $2,242,382 - 58.5 cents/tree - Torrent
05. $2,306,392 - 60.1 cents/tree - Seneca
06. $2,344,279 - 61.1 cents/tree - NGR

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 5:16 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Kamloops

Contract: PL21TED217
Client: BCTS Kamloops
# of Trees: 884,533
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: December 3, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 33.2%

This might turn out to be a tough one.

01. $354,937 - 40.1 cents/tree - Guillory Emery
02. $472,681 - 53.4 cents/tree - Evergreen
03. $640,762 - 72.4 cents/tree - Apex
04. $664,000 - 75.1 cents/tree - Seneca
05. $818,654 - 92.6 cents/tree - Folklore
06. $830,560 - 93.9 cents/tree - Blue Collar
07. $884,533 - $1.00 per tree - Brinkman
08. Ineligible - Timberline

TripleS · Post by **TripleS** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 6:54 am

^^^Bringing that Island mentality to the interior. Amazingly clueless!

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:43 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Boundary/GF

Contract: PL21TFF001
Client: BCTS Nelson
# of Trees: 1,583,166
Season: Spring/Summer 2019
Opened: December 4, 2019
Option to Renew: No
Contractor Rating System: No
Left on the Table: 44.2%

This is getting quite interesting. I think the moral of the story here is that things are bad on the coast.

01. $ 634,026 - 40.0 cents/tree - Guillory Emery
02. $ 914,454 - 57.8 cents/tree - Evergreen
03. $1,508,959 - 94.3 cents/tree - Apex
04. $1,583,166 - $1.00 per tree - Brinkman

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 9:11 pm

Someone is in for a nasty surprise

Post by **Scooter** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 5:02 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Keremeos

Client: FFT
# of Trees: 1,437,820
Season: Late spring 2020
Opened: December 6, 2019
Left on the Table: 10.4%

This one has some challenging access, but it is also high elevation ground (1800m to 2000m) that may not even open up until early June or mid June, and is theoretically intended to be completed by June 30th. My guess is that dependent upon weather this winter, this contract might have to bleed into July. You can't fight Mother Nature.

I don't have all of the company names associated with this bid yet, just the winner. There was also an eighth bidder (not on the list below) that was disqualified.

01. $1,056,797 - 73.5 cents/tree - Dynamic
02. $1,166,865 - 81.2 cents/tree
03. $1,188,670 - 82.7 cents/tree
04. $1,203,350 - 83.7 cents/tree
05. $1,570,336 - $1.09 per tree
06. $1,717,618 - $1.19 per tree
07. $2,516,185 - $1.75 per tree

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:00 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in 100 Mile House

Contract: PL21TEG826
Client: BCTS 100 Mile House
# of Trees: 2,596,340
Season: Spring/summer 2020
Opened: December 10, 2019
Left on the Table: 6.5%

This job also includes 1,159,000 ferts. 195k of these trees are summer trees, but the majority are spring.

01. $1,292,251 - 49.8 cents/tree - Celtic
02. $1,391,115 - 53.6 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $1,431,836 - 55.1 cents/tree - NGR
04. $1,508,565 - 58.1 cents/tree - Torrent
05. $1,539,921 - 59.3 cents/tree - Seneca
06. $2,324,977 - 89.5 cents/tree - Brinkman

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:06 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Vernon

Contract: PL21DOS001A
Client: MOF Vernon
# of Trees: 123,407
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: November 12, 2019
Option to Renew: Yes
Left on the Table: N/A

Tiny.

01. $109,176 - 88.5 cents/tree - Raven Ventures

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:52 pm

Bivouac (Guillory Emery & Associates) has apparently dropped both the BCTS Kamloops and the BCTS Boundary bids.

Treeppy · Post by **Treeppy** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:01 pm

Well, that would be a good news, those bids seemed really misjudged.
Now, wouldn't that be funny if Evergreen wasn't able to take on the Boundary job for some reason? I'm sure that would make somebody at Apex or Brinkman very happy!
Or could BCTS re-tender them?

jdtesluk · Post by **jdtesluk** » Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:57 pm

I believe that Evergreen dropped the Kamloops job and Apex got it with the 72.4 (assuming it does not get re-tendered).
That's a HUGE price for that job. Planters should have high expectations.

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:56 am

I don't think that BCTS has any reasonable grounds to re-tender. Had there been a good reason, they would have wanted to do so immediately after the bids were opened. They can't arbitrarily go through a few bids and then, when the price is getting high, suddenly change their mind. If they did, whichever contractor was next in line would probably have grounds for legal action.

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:36 am

Would Bivouac lose their bid deposit for dropping the jobs? What valid reason would they have to give?, other than being clueless?

Cyper · Post by **Cyper** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:05 am

The ministry doesn't need any particular reason to reject all of the tenders and retender if they think the prices are too high. There's little to no chance that they'd be willing to pay a buck a tree for planting in Boundary. They'd most likely retender the job split up into smaller portions.

According to the Conditions of Tender found in every planting contract offering:

16.06 The lowest or any other tender will not necessarily be accepted. The Ministry reserves the right to:
(a) reject all tenders;

Bivouac should probably either lose their bid deposit or be banned from bidding on BCTS work for up to two years. However BCTS is probably so glad to get rid of them that they will be let off the hook. This arbitrary "mercy" is understandable but unfair to every other contractor who's either lost their bid deposits or been threatened with the bidding ban. Perhaps Bivouac told Kamloops they had capacity issues as they were low bid on the Boundary job and then told Boundary the reverse....
In any case it's in everyone's best interest to let Bivouac learn their lesson and slink back to Port Hardy.

jdtesluk · Post by **jdtesluk** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:48 am

Lost in the mix here is a good price on that Boundary job. Continued positive signs here.

leftcoast · Post by **leftcoast** » Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:17 pm

For sure, Boundary price looks good, its climbed significantly over the last few years, roughly up $10 cents last year and again for 2020. Should be a solid show this Spring, and a great corner of the province to ply ones trade for sure.

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:21 am

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in 100 Mile House

Contract: PL21DMH003
Client: MOF 100 Mile
# of Trees: 490,280
Opened: December 18th, 2019
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 21.4%

Here's a small contract for the District. There is still one more contract to be opened in 100 Mile House, but that's for BCTS. Due in January.

01. $277,195 - 56.5 cents/tree - Folklore
02. $336,539 - 68.6 cents/tree - Evergreen
03. $410,214 - 83.7 cents/tree - Seneca
04. $483,972 - 98.7 cents/tree - Dynamic

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:52 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Fort St John

Contract: PL21TDF001
Client: BCTS Fort St John
# of trees: 1,019,870
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: December 19, 2019
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 6.6%

This is late spring work, with trees not required to be finished until around July 2nd.

01. $ 741,561 - 72.7 cents/tree - Artisan
02. $ 790,704 - 77.5 cents/tree - Folklore
03. $ 853,532 - 83.7 cents/tree - Seneca
04. $1,244,241 - $1.22 per tree - Celtic

Post by **Scooter** » Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:28 am

The BCTS job in Terrace (PL21TII103) was withdrawn because of an error in the documentation, and will be re-tendered in January. It was originally supposed to open on December 17th.

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 6:45 am

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in 100 Mile House

Contract: PL21TEG825
Client: BCTS 100 Mile House
# of Trees: 844,544
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: January 2, 2020
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Left on the Table: 0.0%

Very close. I'm not sure if Contractor Rating System rankings may determine the winner here. I'll try to find out next week. This contract is composed of about 675k of fills and 170k of somewhat rocky raw ground.

01. $537,029 - 63.6 cents/tree - Apex
02. $537,634 - 63.7 cents/tree - Zanzibar
03. $561,554 - 66.5 cents/tree - Seneca
04. $572,026 - 67.7 cents/tree - Dynamic
05. $711,087 - 84.2 cents/tree - Folklore

Post by **Scooter** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:33 am

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Haida Gwaii

Contract: PL21TBJ002
Client: BCTS Haida Gwaii
# of Trees: 73,693
Season: 2020
Opened: January 3, 2020
Left on the Table: 19.2%

This contract is predominantly silviculture activities related to planting (installing of 64k browse protection cones, 194 Ha of cone R&R, and 14.3 Ha of mechanical brushing).

01. $474,224 - $6.44/tree - Stephan Contracting
02. $565,326 - $7.67/tree - Osprey

mwainwright · Post by **mwainwright** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:27 pm

One of my favourite jobs. Glad to be on it again after a few years off

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:18 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Brushing in Terrace

Contract: BR21TII105
Client: BCTS Terrace
Season: 2020
Opened: January 7, 2020
Left on the Table: 169%

This is a girdling and conifer release program for the Porcher Island and Terrace area. That's a lot of money to leave on the table.

01. $ 90,190 - Mihis Silviculture
02. $242,191 - Little Trees

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:28 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Chilliwack

Contract: PL21TBS001
Client: BCTS Chilliwack
# of Trees: (see notes below)
Season: Spring/Fall 2020
Opened: January 13, 2020
Left on the Table: 7.0%

This contract is not like standard Interior planting. This tender offer form includes a lot of work which is based on person-day work rates, rather than piece rate. Accordingly, as in past year, I will not be including data from this contract when I perform the viewing season summaries at the start of February.

Incidentally, on that note, you've probably noticed that I didn't do a lot of regular weekly updates during the fall/winter this year. Too busy. But I am about to sit down and do a serious full analysis of bidding data in the next week and a half, and I'll share that here after the upcoming WFCA Conference that is taking place in Prince George at the end of this week.

01. $556,331 - Fieldstone
02. $595,535 - Zanzibar

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:41 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Fort St John

Contract: PL21TDF002
Client: BCTS Dawson Creek
# of Trees: 892,506
Season: Summer 2020
Opened: January 14, 2020
Left on the Table: 12.8%

Bold. This one is all heli work.

01. $505,645 - 56.7 cents/tree - Blue Collar
02. $570,275 - 63.9 cents/tree - Apex
03. $798,635 - 89.5 cents/tree - Dynamic
04. $959,436 - $1.07 per tree - Folklore
05. $964,206 - $1.08 per tree - Celtic
06. $975,231 - $1.09 per tree - Seneca

Evergreen · Post by **Evergreen** » Wed Jan 15, 2020 9:46 am

Interesting to see that Celtic jumped past Folklore on this Fort St. John job due to a higher contractor rating. Some might say the system is so subjective as to be unfair.

Post by **Scooter** » Fri Jan 17, 2020 2:50 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Dawson Creek & Fort St John

Contract: PL21TDE001
Client: BCTS Dawson Creek
# of Trees: 2,097,475
Opened: January 14, 2020
Option to Renew: No
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Left on the Table: 2.0%

These numbers include potential helicopter access on ten blocks.

01. $1,272,006 - 60.6 cents/tree - Blue Collar
02. $1,297,562 - 61.9 cents/tree - Apex
03. $1,651,613 - 78.7 cents/tree - Folklore
04. $2,131,094 - $1.02 per tree - Seneca
05. $2,434,692 - $1.16 per tree - Celtic

jdtesluk · Post by **jdtesluk** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 8:04 pm

A couple of good summer wins for Blue Collar.

It's been said before, but huge thanks to Scooter for posting and sharing this information. It provides a level of insight to the industry that never used to be available. Thanks again man.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:49 am

Here are the results for a contract for Planting on the Sunshine Coast

Contract: PL20TBP003
Client: BCTS Chilliwack
# of Trees: 544,106
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: January 20, 2020
Option to Renew: No
Contractor Rating System: Yes
Left on the Table: 6.8%

This is a very complex job. Lots of challenging access (boat/barge/heli). Some high elevation work that will overlap with the start of the Interior planting season.

Thanks to the Contractor Rating System, Evergreen moved from #3 to #2 in the rankings.

01. $591,453 - $1.08 per tree - Rainforest
02. $631,503 - $1.16 per tree - Fieldstone
03. $634,103 - $1.16 per tree - Evergreen
04. $964,590 - $1.77 per tree - Leader

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:47 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Chilliwack

Contract: PL20LMN007
Client: MOF Chilliwack
# of Trees: 324,190
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: January 21, 2020
Option to Renew: No
Left on the Table: 20.8%

Fire burned stands with DTA and a bit of heli.

01. $286,701 - 88.4 cents/tree - Fieldstone
02. $346,271 - $1.07 per tree - Zanzibar

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 6:26 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Terrace

Contract: PL21TII103A
Client: BCTS Terrace
# of Trees: 379,195
Season: Spring and Fall 2020
Left on the Table: 11.7%

As per the contract, this is mostly a fall plant: "The proposed contract includes a Spring plant and a Fall plant. The Spring plant consists of the Terrace operating area which is 13.5 ha and the North Coast operating area which is 43.4ha. The Fall plant is in the Nass operating area which is 333.4ha." While technical, this work is fairly similar to Interior work, and the pricing is similar, so I am lumping it into the data analysis rather than excluding it (which is what I do for coastal projects).

This is the last public contract that I know of for the 2020 planting season.

01. $271,489 - 71.6 cents/tree - Brinkman
02. $303,263 - 80.0 cents/tree - Little Trees
03. $309,279 - 81.6 cents/tree - Whanau Forestry
04. $429,795 - $1.13 per tree - Windfirm

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 6:29 pm

Now that the public bids have all been revealed (except the full details of the two MOF Williams Lake contracts, and full details for two of the four Zanzibar-administered contracts in the Quesnel area, and the company names for the FFT Keremeos job), I'm starting to analyze the data. I'll be presenting information at the WFCA Conference in Prince George on Friday morning, then I'll share some of that data here.

MikeBH · Post by **MikeBH** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:09 pm

So nice to see the prices going up after so much stagnation. As has been said, it still remains to be seen how much goes to the planters, and how much to the contractors, but at least there is some wiggle room for the first time in ages. Looking forwards to the analysis.

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:47 pm

While you wait, here are some photos from the Trade Show portion of the WFCA Conference in Prince George:

http://www.replant.ca/wfca2020.html

Post by **Scooter** » Sun Feb 02, 2020 3:35 pm

Here are the results for a contract for Planting in Fort Nelson

Contract: PL21DFN001
Client: MOF Fort Nelson
# of Trees: 960,000
Season: Spring 2020
Opened: August 2019
Option to Renew: Tenatively available
Left on the Table: unknown

This one came out way back in the summer, but this MOF office wouldn't release the results. In fact, right now, I only know the winning bid, but no other details. Maybe there was only one bidder. Fort Nelson isn't a very fun place to work. Unfortunately, I didn't have this result when I made all my slides for last week's WFCA conference presentation. I'll post those slides tomorrow evening.

01. $687,988 - 71.7 cents/tree

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:32 pm

I'm about to share a number of charts that I presented to attendees at the WFCA Conference that was held a week and a half ago in Prince George. My apologies for the delay, but I've been extremely busy with a bunch of different projects that I've been working on. Among other things, five planting contractors have gotten together to provide support for the creation of and sharing of a digital edition of my training manual, "Step By Step: A Tree Planter's Handbook." I'll have much information about that shortly, but in the meantime, I'd like to thank Blue Collar, Folklore, Leader, Summit, and Zanzibar for their support in making that project possible. Here's an advance link for Replant forums users: www.replant.ca/digitaldownloads.html

Please don't share that link on social media yet. I'll be sharing it slowly on various sites over a period of several days, starting with sites that are less busy, so I don't get a sudden huge bandwidth demand surge that overwhelms my servers and knocks the main Replant website and forums offline for a while.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:40 pm

The data that I used for the following charts incorporate all results known to January 29th. It doesn't include the results for the MOF Fort Nelson job that Summit won, because I didn't find out about that until after my presentation, and I don't have time to go through and re-build all the charts and analyses.

If you'd like to download the underlying Excel spreadsheet that I used to collect all bid data, you can get it from this link:

http://www.replant.ca/docs/bidding_summ ... _2019.xlsx

Alternatively, if you'd like to just look at the data and don't need to be able to work with it in spreadsheet form, I've attached a PDF printout of that spreadsheet to this post.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:47 pm

Chart 1 - Number of Known Public Contracts

This slide shows that there were 33 known public tenders in BC in 2016, and that number increased to 55 in 2020.

Incidentally, all of these charts are based upon a five-year trend analysis. the years indicated on the slides refer to the Year Of Planting. So for example, the 2016 data indicates viewing/bidding from Fall of 2015 for the 2016 planting season. I have a total of 10 charts to share.

Post by **Scooter** » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:48 pm

Chart 2 - Average Size of Contract

The number of trees per average contract has been creeping upward fairly consistently from year to year.