Headwaters Forestry LLC

Headwaters Forestry LLC, a Missoula, Montana-based for-profit limited liability company, provides timber harvesting, fuels reduction, wildland fire suppression, and faller training services to the U.S. Forest Service as a prime contractor on small-business set-aside and full-and-open delivery orders and indefinite delivery contracts. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime across all 21 recent federal awards with no subcontract footprint and competes on both Total Small Business set-aside vehicles and unrestricted task orders.

Headwaters' customer base is entirely within the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service ecosystem. The National Interagency Fire Center (Fire and Aviation Management) anchors the vendor's dollar concentration, holding 8 awards valued at $1.2 million in combined potential value, while the Forest Service's Northern Region (R1) accounts for 8 awards worth $310 thousand. The Rocky Mountain Region (R2) and Pacific Southwest Region (R5) round out active operations, with two and one award respectively. All 21 awards fall under PSC Natural Resources/Conservation — Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression and NAICS 541711 (Support Activities for Forestry).

Headwaters holds two primary indefinite delivery contracts with the Forest Service. The first, a $250,000 Total Small Business IDC awarded June 9, 2023, by the National Interagency Fire Center and running through June 2028, covers faller, forestry, and wildland fire support services across USFS Regions 1, 2, and 4; 10 task orders have been issued against this vehicle since award, valued at $335 thousand combined. The second, a $500,000 Total Small Business IDC awarded February 6, 2026, also through the National Interagency Fire Center with completion through June 2028, covers faller services for the East Zone (Regions 1, 2, and 4) on a firm fixed-price basis; 6 task orders valued at $267 thousand have been placed to date. Representative delivery orders include a $50,612 order from USFS R1 in September 2024 for timber harvesting, fuels reduction, and forest health services; a $49,184 order from USFS R1 in August 2025 for similar work in Libby, Montana; and a $24,744 order from USFS R2 in August 2025 for fire and forest support in Durango, Colorado.

Activity has been sporadic — four awards in 2021, seven in 2023, then a sharp decline to one award in 2024 and two each in 2025 and 2026. Combined potential value across all awards stands at $1.9 million, with $677 thousand obligated (35% of potential value), reflecting the vendor's status as a small operator on short-duration regional forestry and incident-response task orders. All awards are issued against the two NIFC-administered indefinite delivery vehicles, with no seats on government-wide contract vehicles or secondary parent vehicles.