Region 3 - Southwestern Region

The Department of Agriculture Forest Service R3-Southwestern Region is a civilian sub-agency responsible for procuring and funding forest management, infrastructure maintenance, restoration, and research activities across Arizona and New Mexico national forests and related lands. The Region administers both contracts for operational services and supplies, and grants to state forestry agencies, universities, and tribal entities for collaborative forest health and fire management projects.

The Forest Service Region 3 has awarded 25,225 federal contracts since 2001, with combined potential value of $1.63 billion and $1.56 billion obligated (95% of potential value). Contract activity has remained steady, with 1,591 awards in 2023, 1,319 in 2024, 1,231 in 2025, 1,498 in 2026, and 2 recorded as of the most recently recorded award date of April 1, 2027. The competitive landscape is highly fragmented: the top five primes by award count—Emergency Support Services, LLC (259 awards), 310 Dust Control LLC (255 awards), RLA Holdings, Inc. (146 awards), Pine Rim Enterprises Inc. (136 awards), and Lap Contracting Inc. (129 awards)—hold only 10 percent of recent awards over the last five years. By potential value, fragmentation is even more pronounced: the top five by value cover only 3 percent of combined potential value in that window, with 310 Dust Control LLC leading at $14.3 million combined potential value.

The Region's contract mix is dominated by open competition: 67 percent of awards carry no set-aside designation. Small-business set-asides (both total and 8(a) sole-source) account for 31 percent of awards. Individual set-aside categories—HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, woman-owned, and economically disadvantaged woman-owned—each represent less than one percent of activity. Recent contract opportunities span routine operations and larger construction projects: Tahoe National Forest seeks snow-plowing services for the Truckee Ranger District office (Total Small Business set-aside, due October 8, 2026), Cibola National Forest is soliciting corrugated-metal culvert pipe and supplies (due October 7, 2026), and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests requires crushed aggregate supply (due September 30, 2026). A pre-solicitation for Gallinas Canyon Road Reconstruction Phase II on the Santa Fe National Forest indicates anticipated magnitude exceeding $10 million for integrated design-through-construction services, including 14 bridge replacements in a post-fire recovery effort.

The Forest Service Region 3 has awarded 390 federal grants since 2011, with $566.8 million in combined federal dollars obligated and $738.5 million in total obligated dollars (federal plus non-federal share). Grant activity declined from 71 awards in 2023 to 26 year-to-date in 2026, following peaks of 46 in 2022 and 69 in 2024. Grant recipients are concentrated among state and tribal forestry entities: the Energy Minerals & Natural Resources Department (52 awards, $175.5 million federal dollars) and Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management (64 awards, $87.8 million federal dollars) together account for 56 percent of recent awards by count and 53 percent by federal dollars obligated. Universities including New Mexico State University, Northern Arizona University, and New Mexico Highlands University round out the active recipient base. Project Grants dominate the assistance-type mix at 78 percent of awards, with Cooperative Agreements comprising 22 percent. Recent grant opportunities are not reported in the source data.