Specifications include, but are not limited to: The Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry is soliciting qualified vendors for spruce seedlings planting within the Fairbanks, AK area. The awarded contractor will plant ~40,000 white spruce seedlings across previously identified units. Planting will occur, on average, with a spacing of 12ft x 12ft and approximately 300 seedlings per acre. Seedlings will be delivered to Fairbanks Area Forestry where the contractor will pick up seedlings and transport to planting sites. Planting seedling trees will consist of digging and preparing plant holes and planting furnished seedling trees. A. TREE SEEDLING CARE AND HANDLING: The contractor must ensure that their planters adhere to the following: 1. Daily check a sample of the roots and root plugs for dryness. Water when needed. 2. Protect the roots and root plugs from drying out by prolonged exposure. 3. During temporary stoppages in planting, place the tree seedlings in a shaded area with seedlings shoots open to the air 4. Keep air exposure to tree roots at a minimum. B. PLANTING METHOD: 1. Planting is to be done in as continuous a manner as possible and may only be suspended due to extreme weather conditions such as high temperatures, winds, dry soil conditions, or extremely wet soil conditions. Periods of suspension will be at the sole discretion of the State. 2. The planter will be required to maintain an average 12' X 12' spacing. No spruce will be planted closer than 8' and farther than 12' from the nearest planted or naturally existing spruce tree. 3. Seedlings are to be planted only in microsites that favor tree survival and growth such as a mixture of mineral soil and well decomposed organic matter, and on microsites that have been site prepared. 4. Each planting hole must be of a size that will accommodate the entire root system or plug of a tree in a natural position and not in a tumbled or double-up position. 5. Each seedling must be planted to such a depth so that the mineral soil of the plug is 1/4" deeper than the surrounding compacted soil. No part of the plug or root system will be exposed.