Region 5 - Pacific Southwest Region

The Department of Agriculture Forest Service R5-Pacific Southwest Region, a civilian sub-agency within USDA responsible for land management, natural-resources restoration, and hazardous-fuels reduction across national forests and grasslands in California, Hawaii, and the Pacific territories, operates a highly active and fragmented contract portfolio alongside a moderately concentrated grant program.

The Forest Service R5 has awarded 41,441 federal contracts since 2001, generating $3.76 billion in combined potential value with $3.61 billion obligated. Recent activity shows 3,566 awards in 2023, 3,496 in 2024, 3,357 in 2025, 1,204 in 2026, and 4 year-to-date in 2027; the latest recorded award date is 2027-04-05. Contract competition is highly fragmented among 6,682 distinct prime contractors. Over the last five years, Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, Inc. leads by award count with 398 awards and $56.7 million combined potential value, followed by Pacific Oasis Inc. with 225 awards and $25.6 million, and All American Emergency Services with 159 awards and $16.3 million. The top five primes account for only 7 percent of recent awards and 3 percent of combined potential value, indicating substantial work distribution across the long tail. Contract set-asides are dominated by open competition—78 percent of awards carry no set-aside designation—with 19 percent reserved for small business and smaller allocations to 8(a) sole source (2 percent), HUBZone (1 percent), and service-disabled veteran-owned small business (0 percent). The agency transacts heavily through BPA call orders against the Land Management Integrated Resources BPA (LMIR), a national multiple-award schedule open to 45 pre-approved contractors.

The Forest Service R5 has distributed 955 grants totaling $873.7 million in federal dollars obligated (with $1.2 billion combined federal and non-federal shares) since 2009. Recent grant activity shows 107 awards in 2022, 145 in 2023, 152 in 2024, 105 in 2025, and 30 in 2026. Grant recipients are moderately concentrated: the top five recipients account for 24 percent of recent award count and 27 percent of federal dollars. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection leads with 44 awards and $138.8 million federal dollars, followed by the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources with 58 awards and $69.7 million. Grant funding is predominantly Project Grants (87 percent of awards) with 13 percent as Cooperative Agreements. Among recent contract opportunities, multiple BPA call orders target small-business-set-aside work in forest restoration, site preparation, and hazardous-fuels reduction across national forests (Craggy SIR Plant & Grub at Klamath National Forest, due Sep 28, 2026; Castle Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction at Shasta-Trinity National Forest, amended opportunity with due date Aug 12, 2026). A small-business-set-aside RFQ for various trailers across multiple forests was cancelled on Sep 15, 2026 and reissued as individual solicitations. Open-competition opportunities include RO5 Fire Protection fire-safety servicing (Sep 18, 2026) and R5 Heavy Duty Trailers (due Aug 20, 2026).