Kisatchie NF Vegetation Management Services 2017-2022

The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Region 8 (Southern Region) awarded a Master IDIQ for vegetation management and wildlife protection services on the Kisatchie National Forest with a shared ceiling of $2 million, but ordering closed on May 31, 2019 — more than seven years ago. This vehicle is no longer active for new task orders.

The vehicle established 75 task orders between May 2017 and August 2022, averaging roughly 10–12 orders per year in years 2–4 of the contract period and declining to 8 orders in year 5. Combined obligated value across all task orders reached $1.8 million, consuming 100 percent of the combined potential value. Work encompassed site preparation through mechanical and chemical means (drum chopping, fireline construction, herbicide application), invasive species management (foliar spray and hack-and-squirt treatment), midstory reduction around red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) clusters, bushhogging, tree planting (longleaf and shortleaf pine), seed orchard maintenance, and fuel reduction from hurricane damage.

Louisiana Forestry Solutions LLC dominated the vehicle, winning 31 orders worth $1 million in combined potential value—roughly 56 percent of all work. Carl Potter Forestry Inc. captured 28 orders totaling $446 thousand (25 percent), and Express Forestry Service, LLC won 12 orders for $229 thousand (13 percent). The remaining two primes—Taylor Forestry Services LLC and Earthbalance Corporation—held only 4 orders combined. Orders were overwhelmingly unrestricted (87 percent), with small-business set-asides accounting for 13 percent of the portfolio.

Ordering concentrated in the Kisatchie National Forest R8-Southern Region office, which issued 73 of 75 orders ($1.7 million), with two additional orders issued elsewhere within Forest Service ($76 thousand). Individual delivery orders ranged from under $1 thousand to roughly $147 thousand, with typical firm-fixed-price contracts lasting three to twelve months. The vehicle's Louisiana location and narrow three-year ordering window (2017–2019) limit forward pursuit opportunity, though the historical ordering pattern and task-order scope may inform strategies for successor vehicles or regional Forest Service vegetation management contracts.

The Kisatchie National Forest has awarded a Master IDIQ for vegetation management / wildlife protection services.