Contractors Hermit's/Calf fire (U.s. Forest Service - Region 3)

Good morning,

Your request was assigned tracking number 2022-FS-R3-03952-F. Your request does not address fees. You are required to state if you are willing to pay in full, or state an amount you are willing to pay. You did not provide enough information to properly assign a fee category, so you will be considered an "all other" requester. As such, you are entitled to two hours of search and 100 pages of duplication at no charge. Are you wanting to limit the search for records to your all other entitlements?

The Federal Government is not subject to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, nor are we obligated to provide records within 15 business days. Only winning bids are subject to the FOIA. Non-winning bids are protected under the FAR and will be withheld under (b)(3). Internal memoranda or materials outlining the contractor selection process specific to winning bids are generally withheld under (b)(5). Do you still want to include these items in your request? Search fees will accrue regardless of if you receive documents or not.

The FOIA specifies two requirements for a request for records to be considered a valid, "perfected" request: (1) It must "reasonably describe" the records requested and (2) it must be made in accordance with the agency's published FOIA regulations. After careful review of your FOIA request, the Forest Service has determined that your request does not specifically identify the records which you are seeking. Records must be described in reasonably sufficient detail to enable government employees who are familiar with the subject area to locate records without placing an unreasonable burden upon the agency. See 7 C.F.R. § 1.5(b), and Forest Service Handbook 6209.13. Where possible, a requester should supply specific information regarding dates, titles, names of individuals, names of offices, and name of agencies or organizations that may help identify the records. The FOIA does not require an agency to create new records, answer questions posed by requesters, or attempt to interpret a request that does not identify specific records.

Please resubmit your request containing a reasonable description of the records you are seeking and address fees. As written, we are unable to determine if you are willing to pay for the search for documents you will not receive.

In the event that we do not hear from you within 20 business days from the date of this letter, we will assume you are no longer interested in this FOIA request, and the case will be administratively closed. Please be advised that this action is not a denial of your request and will not preclude you from filing other requests in the future.

If you have any questions regarding this response or if further assistance is required, you may reply to this email. You may also contact the Forest Service FOIA Public Liaison at SM.FS.WOFOIA@usda.gov.

Thank you,

Alisha

Good morning,

To receive news media status, you have to meet the threshold. Just stating you are a journalist does not meet the threshold. Please see FOIA FAQ: How to get media requester status • MuckRock<https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/mar/31/foia-media-status-guide/> provided by MuckRock

Without additional information, your requester status will be “all others”

Thank you,

Alisha

Good afternoon,

Thank you for providing your journalist information so we can accept your fee status as news media. We accept your request and will process it under tracking number 2022-FS-R3-03952-F. We will search for:

All requests or solicitations for contractors to provide equipment or perform clean up, logging or other work related to the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire.
All bids received from contractors to provide equipment or perform clean up, logging or other work related to the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire.
A list of approved contractors for all work on the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire along with locations where contractors are based and the approved contracts with scope of work and payment details.
Internal memoranda or materials outlining the contractor selection process.

We do not believe we can search and provide the requested records within the 20 day statutory time limit. Any records responsive to your request will need additional review and possibly redactions prior to release, so the records will be re-routed to the regional office for release determination. If the number of pages of responsive documents exceeds what can be reviewed in several hours, your request will be added to the complex queue. It will remain in the complex queue until those proceeding it are completed. We are still working on requests from 2018 in the complex queue, all of which will proceed the review of this request if it is placed in the complex queue.

If you want to receive records in a more timely manner (1-2 months), you may want to streamline your request as much as possible to keep the number of responsive pages to just those you are really interested in, to reduce the time needed for review and keep your request in the simple queue. Asking for a smaller amount of documents now, will not prevent you from asking for additional material at a later date. You can reduce the scope of your request at any time.

Pursuant to our Region’s policy, we will provide all non-exempt responsive records on a compact disc in electronic format or via email. Any responsive records will be reviewed and possibly be redacted or withheld pursuant to FOIA Exemptions including (b)(3), (b)(5), (b)(6) and (b)(7).

If you have any questions regarding this response or if further assistance is required, you may reply to this email. You may also contact the Forest Service FOIA Public Liaison at SM.FS.WOFOIA@usda.gov.

Please let me know if you have any questions related to your request.

Thank you,

Alisha

Still working on it.

Good morning,

The final response letter for your request has been submitted for review and signature. Once that is done, it will be sent to you.

Alisha

Good afternoon,

Attached is the final response letter for your FOIA request, tracking number 2022-FS-R3- 02407-F.

Please let me know if there are any questions or concerns related to this request.

Thank you,

Alisha

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