Karsen William Caldera Bennett

Karsen William Caldera Bennett, doing business as Bennett Livestock, is a self-certified small disadvantaged business sole proprietorship that provides heavy equipment and operator services for wildland firefighting and forest land management to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service as a prime contractor, operating exclusively under total small business set-asides on its indefinite-delivery contracts and competitively on full-and-open delivery orders.

Bennett Livestock is headquartered in Orcutt, California, and performs work across Forest Service Regions 5 (Pacific Southwest) and 6 (intermountain west), with field operations centered in Solvang, California. The vendor's capability portfolio is narrowly focused on heavy equipment provision and rapid-deployment operator support: the company supplies feller bunchers, mulchers, masticators, road graders, dozers, excavators, skidders, and comparable machinery, along with qualified personnel, to support wildland fire suppression, all-hazard incident response, and prescribed forest management work. All 28 awards in the source carry the single NAICS code 335221 (Support Activities for Forestry) and the single PSC code for forest-range fire suppression, reflecting zero diversification beyond this capability.

The vendor's customer base is entirely within the Department of Agriculture Forest Service ecosystem. The National Interagency Fire Center accounts for six awards and $1.9 million in combined potential value, anchored by three multiple-award indefinite-delivery contracts — two awarded February 6, 2026, at $500,000 each with performance through June 2028 and June 2029 respectively, and one awarded June 13, 2024, at $250,000 with performance through June 2029. All three IDCs are set-aside for small business and support competitive task-order bidding. Forest Service Region 5 (Pacific Southwest) holds 15 delivery orders and $1.1 million in combined potential value, while Region 3 (Southwestern) accounts for one $65 thousand order. Recent delivery orders represent small transactions: a $142,500 delivery order from Region 5 dated September 3, 2026; a $89.6 thousand order from August 21, 2025; and a $128.8 thousand order from August 8, 2025.

Activity has accelerated in recent years. The vendor received one award per year in 2022 and 2023, then six in 2024, five in 2025, and five in 2026 (year-to-date). Combined potential value across all 28 awards stands at $3.4 million, with $1.3 million obligated to date (39% of potential). The vendor operates exclusively as a prime contractor; no subcontract activity appears in the source. All work is performed in the western United States, with place of performance concentrated in Solvang, California, and services delivered across Forest Service Regions 5 and 6 to support federal emergency response and land stewardship operations.