Messer Excavation LLC

Messer Excavation LLC, a self-certified small disadvantaged business based in Palermo, California, provides excavation and heavy equipment services for wildfire suppression and land management to the USDA Forest Service as a prime contractor exclusively under total small business set-asides. The firm operates as a limited liability partnership and competes entirely through federal set-aside vehicles, with 100% of its recent award portfolio directed to Forest Service programs across western U.S. regions.

Messer Excavation specializes in providing heavy equipment — including dozers, excavators, graders, feller bunchers, mulchers, and masticators — deployed on demand for emergency wildland fire suppression, all-hazard incident response, and prescribed forest project work. Recent representative delivery orders include a $162,800 firm fixed-price order from Forest Service Region 5 (Pacific Southwest Region) awarded August 12, 2026, for excavation and heavy equipment services in Quincy, California; a $205,316 order from the same region awarded September 2, 2025, for wildfire suppression operations in Clovis, California; and a $86,876 order awarded August 27, 2025, for emergency response support in Yreka, California. All work is performed on firm fixed-price terms across California and the western United States, with rapid turnaround cycles typical of incident response contracting — most delivery orders span two to four weeks from award to completion.

Customer concentration is singular. The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service accounts for 100% of awards, split between the Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (four awards, $1.8 million combined potential value) and Forest Service Region 5 Pacific Southwest Region (eleven awards, $756 thousand combined potential value). Messer Excavation holds four active Indefinite Delivery Contracts with the National Interagency Fire Center, all designated as total small business set-asides and firm fixed-price: two IDCs awarded February 6, 2026, with ceilings of $500,000 (running through June 12, 2028) and $750,000 (running through May 22, 2030), one IDC awarded May 22, 2025, with a $250,000 ceiling (running through May 22, 2030), and one IDC awarded June 12, 2023, with a $250,000 ceiling (running through June 12, 2028). These contracts function as incident blanket purchase agreements (I-BPAs) under the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system, positioning equipment and crews for rapid dispatch across Regions 5 and 6. Activity has grown from two awards in 2023 to seven in 2025 and five year-to-date in 2026. The combined potential value across all sixteen awards is $2.5 million, with $787 thousand obligated to date (31% of ceiling). All work falls under the PSC Natural Resources/Conservation—Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression category and the NAICS Support Activities for Forestry code.