Black Ridge LLC

Black Ridge LLC, a Colorado-based small disadvantaged business, operates exclusively as a prime contractor delivering fuel tenders, prescribed fire modules, refrigerated trailers, and wildland fire suppression personnel to the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and National Interagency Fire Center under Total Small Business set-asides. The company is a for-profit limited liability partnership headquartered in Montrose, Colorado with operations also based in Springfield, Oregon, competing solely within set-aside vehicles and carrying no subcontractor engagement across its entire portfolio.

Black Ridge's customer concentration is monolithic — 88% of recent awards fund Department of Agriculture forest and fire management operations, with the National Interagency Fire Center and the Forest Service's regional offices (Regions 2, 3, 4, and 6) accounting for nearly all volume. By potential value, however, the Forest Service Research Service Rocky Mountain Research Station dominates, anchoring $7.5 million (50% of combined potential value) through a single prescribed fire and support services IDIQ awarded September 8, 2025, covering Region 4 (Intermountain Region) National Forests across twelve forest properties. The National Interagency Fire Center delivers the next-largest block at $4.4 million across 28 awards (primarily VIPR I-BPA fuel tender and refrigerated trailer vehicles). The remaining $3 million spans six regional Forest Service offices distributing work across Regions 2, 3, 4, and 6.

Black Ridge holds eleven active indefinite delivery contracts, all awarded within the past eighteen months and all set under Total Small Business set-asides with firm fixed pricing. The top five parent vehicles by task-order volume are NIFC VIPR I-BPAs for fuel tenders and refrigerated trailers serving Regions 1–6, 8, and 9, with Black Ridge's most active single vehicle carrying 17 task orders valued at $1.1 million combined. Individual delivery orders against these IDCs range from $2,500 to $399,118, with typical completion cycles of three to four months. Black Ridge's IDIQ architecture reflects fire-season responsive procurement: regional fuel tender and refrigerated trailer vehicles ($250,000 each) covering Regions 1–2, 3, 4–5–6, and 8–9, plus a large-ceiling prescribed fire contract supporting Region 4 National Forests.

Activity has accelerated sharply — one award in 2022 through six in 2025, to twenty awarded in 2026 (as of late September) — reflecting Black Ridge's successful capture of recently opened VIPR I-BPA vehicles and the large Rocky Mountain Research Station prescribed fire contract. Combined potential value across all sixty awards sits at $14.9 million, with $3.6 million obligated (24% draw-down), indicating substantial remaining capacity in the contract portfolio. The recompete cliff is minimal: only one award (combined potential value $3 thousand) completes within the next twenty-four months, positioning Black Ridge with extended visibility across its current vehicle set through 2028–2031.

Black Ridge operates as a 100% prime contractor with no subcontract footprint; all work flows directly from the vendor. The company's capability portfolio is narrowly specialized: wildland fire suppression equipment (fuel tenders, refrigerated trailers, engines, dozers, air curtain burners), prescribed fire modules of varying sizes (5-person, 10-person, and 20-person teams), fireline construction, thinning, pruning, fuel management, and associated personnel support. Performance spreads across western Forest Service regions and interagency cooperators including the Department of Interior, National Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, with place-of-performance locations spanning Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and New Mexico. Black Ridge's primary NAICS codes are 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry) and petroleum-related categories (reflecting fuel tender equipment classification), with PSC code Q-Natural Resources/Conservation (Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression) covering 59 of 60 awards.