Natureserve

Natureserve, Inc., a nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants and purchase orders for biodiversity data, conservation assessments, species vulnerability analysis, and ecological geospatial information systems, competing on a full-and-open basis without set-aside designations. The organization has received 202 federal awards across 49 customer agencies since 2001, with 201 as prime recipient and one as a sub-recipient on a USGS-led grant; the recent pipeline (FY2023–FY2026) shows eight awards in 2023, declining to one in 2026, with eight awards facing completion in the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $922 thousand).

Customer concentration sits within the Department of the Interior. The top five customer units by award count account for 37% of all awards, led by the Bureau of Land Management National Office (18 awards, $5.5 million) and the National Park Service (18 awards combined across two regions), followed by the U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants (16 awards, $3.6 million), Fish and Wildlife Service Region 9 (8 awards, $665 thousand), and the Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (3 awards, $363 thousand). The top three customer units account for 21% of combined potential value; this ranking tracks with award volume, with no tension between count and dollar concentration.

Natureserve's capability portfolio centers on species and ecosystem data infrastructure, vulnerability assessments, and natural heritage information systems. Representative work includes a $2.543 million definitive contract with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (awarded September 2023, completion September 2029) for continued delivery of the Ecological Unusually Sensitive Areas (ECO USA) geospatial dataset; a $106,100 purchase order from the U.S. Forest Service Region 6 (August 2026, completion December 2027) for updated terrestrial and aquatic species information summarized by USGS 8-digit hydrologic units, leveraging Natureserve's Biotics 5 System and network of over 60 partner organizations; a $32,480 purchase order from Fish and Wildlife Service (August 2025, completion August 2027) for maintenance and technical support of the Threatened and Endangered Species Tool, an online platform developed by Natureserve in 2022; and a $111,203 purchase order from the Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (July 2023, completion July 2025) for evaluation of a web-based application assessing threatened and endangered species vulnerability to climate change using Natureserve's proprietary Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI).

Natureserve's federal grant footprint is substantial and sustained. The organization holds cooperative agreements with the National Park Service under CFDA 15.945 (Cooperative Research and Training Programs—Resources of the National Park System) including a $500,000 award (December 2024, completion June 2026) for climate change vulnerability assessments and ecosystem resilience mapping across Southern Appalachian parks, a $126,000 award (August 2025, completion December 2027) for regional threat assessments in the National Capital Region and Southeast Region, and a July 2024 award (completion December 2028) providing updated climate models and species-habitat relationship documentation for National Capital Region parks. The Bureau of Land Management has awarded multiple multi-year cooperative agreements for conservation status assessments, taxonomic updates, special status species data management, and field data standardization across states (awards dated July 2023, each running through 2028, with combined focus on updating global ranks for at-risk plant taxa and resolving data discrepancies). Natureserve also holds a National Science Foundation grant from the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (awarded September 2025, completion August 2028, CFDA not specified in source) for development of AI-ready ecology and biodiversity data infrastructure, and a USGS cooperative agreement (September 2023, completion September 2028) for invasive species early detection and rapid response capability enhancement and data federation, in collaboration with USGS and state and federal invasive species database aggregators. The Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded a cooperative agreement (September 2023, completion December 2024) for updating plant legal status information and developing a taxonomic crosswalk. Natureserve also acts as a sub-recipient under a University of Wisconsin System USGS-led grant focused on modification of the Climate Change Vulnerability Index and Habitat Climate Change Vulnerability Index to incorporate fire severity and recovery data layers (sub-award dated August 2025).

Natureserve operates as a pure prime (100% of awards on the prime side, less than 1% as sub-recipient), delivering services directly without significant subcontractor engagement. Service Contract Inventory data shows minimal SCI-reportable activity: $1.1 million invoiced in FY2024 across 2.2 FTEs; government-paid hourly rates on those prime contracts ran between $224 and $234 per hour (10th to 90th percentile), with zero sub-hours share. The SCI dataset captures only a thin slice of Natureserve's total federal activity; the bulk of the organization's federal work flows through purchase orders and grants, which are outside SCI scope.

Natureserve's primary NAICS footprint reflects its environmental data and conservation focus: Environmental Consulting Services (36 awards), Surveying and Mapping Services (18 awards), Computer Systems Design Services (12 awards), Custom Computer Programming Services (7 awards), and Computing Infrastructure Providers/Data Processing (5 awards). Primary PSC coding mirrors this: Support—Professional: Other (14 awards), Photo/Map/Print/Publication: Other (13 awards), Natural Resources/Conservation: Other (8 awards), Special Studies/Analysis—Natural Resource (7 awards), and R&D—Defense Other: Services/Management Support (6 awards). Five parent indefinite delivery contracts anchor task-order activity, with Indefinite Delivery Contract INL10PC00478 carrying the largest task-order volume ($3.7 million across five task orders).