The Lake County Forest Preserve District (District) seeks multiple contractors who meet the requirements within this Bid Package including Attachment B, Specifications, to provide both woody and herbaceous invasive plant management across Lake County forest preserve sites during the appropriate season for the essential Work from years 2025 - 2028. 

The primary goal of this woody and herbaceous invasive plant management work is to maintain habitat quality or to follow up previous restoration activities such as prior invasive plant control clearing, seeding or forestry mowing.

Woody Invasive species plant management will occur primarily during the dormant season and will consist of mechanical or other means including by hand, followed by herbicide application, and foliar herbicide application after mechanical removal of woody invasive plants as outlined in Attachment B, Specifications, Section 2, DORMANT SEASON WOODY INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT.

Herbaceous invasive plant control will occur during the growing season and generally will include prior-approved application of the appropriate herbicide by backpack, or by boom-mounted sprayer, as outlined in Attachment B, Specifications, Section 3, GROWING SEASON HERBACEOUS INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT.

The District may enter into Contracts with one or more qualified Bidders who meet the specifications as described in Attachment B, Specifications to complete multiple winter woody invasive species management projects and multiple herbaceous special control projects across multiple preserves. Each selected Bidder will enter into a Contract that provides for Work to be performed as specified in “Work Orders” to be issued by the District on an as-needed basis, as further described in Attachment A, 6: Work Orders, .

The contract time for the Work will run seasonally from March 15, 2025 through November 30, 2028.  The number and scope of the projects in any given year will be determined by the annual budget approved by the District’s Board of Commissioners in October of that year. 

The District anticipates that it will utilize one or more contractors to undertake, in total, approximately 1100-1500 hours of dormant season woody invasive control projects, 25-75 acres of foliar spray application and 4500-5200 hours of herbaceous invasive plant control projects annually, distributed among multiple project areas across the entire District.  The project work areas will be distributed across each of 4 quadrants (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest - See Attachment C, Map of Work Order Project Areas), and some preserves in each quadrant will likely have more than one invasive plant control project (woody and/or herbaceous) and some preserves will not have any invasive plant control projects.  Additional project areas may become available in any given fiscal year via grant or bond funded projects.  Contractors may bid on one, some or all invasive plant control project types across any or all of the project work areas.

All contractors will be required to furnish the necessary personnel, equipment, herbicides, surfactants, spray pattern indicators, and water conditioning agents needed to complete Work in accordance with Work Orders that are issued to and accepted by the contractor. 

7.         Bid Security, Bonds, and Insurance

A.         Bid Security.  Each Bidder’s Proposal shall be accompanied by a security deposit of at least 10% of the Bidder’s Price Proposal in the form of (1) a cashier’s check or certified check drawn on a solvent bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and payable without condition to Owner; or (2) a Bid Bond in the form included in the Bid Package, or a form otherwise approved by Owner, from a surety company licensed to do business in the State of Illinois with a general rating of A and a financial size category of Class III or better in Best’s Insurance Guide.  If the required bid security/bond is not submitted with your bid proposal, your bid proposal will be rejected.

B.         Performance and Payment Bonds.  The successful Bidder will be required to furnish a Performance Bond and a Labor and Material Payment Bond upon award of the Contract, each in the penal sum of the full amount of the Contract Price, on forms provided in the Bid Package from such a surety company meeting the requirements set forth above.  Each Bidder’s Proposal shall be accompanied by a letter from such a surety company stating that it will execute Bonds on forms provided in the Bid Package upon award of the Contract to Bidder.  If the required letter from your surety company is not submitted with your bid proposal, your bid proposal may be rejected.

C          Insurance.  The successful Bidder will be required to furnish certificates and policies of insurance as required by Section 4.2 of the Contract upon award of the Contract.  Each Bidder’s Proposal shall be accompanied by a letter from Bidder’s insurance carrier or its agent certifying that said insurer has read the requirements set forth in the Contract and will issue the required certificates and policies of insurance upon award of the Contract to Bidder.  If the required letter from your insurance carrier/agent is not submitted with your bid proposal, your bid proposal may be rejected.