North Dakota State University

North Dakota State University, operating as the North Dakota Forest Service, is a state-controlled land-grant institution that serves as the prime recipient of federal forest management, wildfire prevention, and conservation grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The vendor does not hold federal contracts; all 76 of its 78 recent prime awards (97%) are federal project grants and cooperative agreements focused on delivering forestry, fire suppression capacity building, hazardous fuels reduction, and natural resource management services on non-federal lands across North Dakota and adjacent regions.

The North Dakota Forest Service is a division of North Dakota State University, a 1862 land-grant institution headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, with administrative offices for the Forest Service division in Bottineau. As a state entity and educational institution, the vendor competes for federal grants without set-aside restrictions; its footprint spans thirty-three consecutive years of federal grant activity, with recent momentum across 2023–2025 (eight awards annually) before stabilizing in 2026 (four awards through June).

The vendor's capability portfolio centers on statewide wildland fire prevention, training, and suppression coordination with North Dakota's 378 fire departments; hazardous fuels reduction on state and private lands adjacent to federal lands; forest stewardship assistance to non-industrial private landowners; forest health monitoring and management; urban and community forestry programs; tree seed and seedling production and distribution through the Towner State Nursery; and conservation education and workforce development. Representative awards include a $3.54 million Cooperative Forestry Assistance grant (CFDA 10.664) obligated September 2, 2025, through August 31, 2030, supporting six primary service areas including forest stewardship, forest health management, community forestry, wildland fire capacity enhancement, conservation education, and state forest resource planning; a $460,650 State & Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Assistance grant (CFDA 10.698) obligated June 10, 2026, through May 31, 2031, funding statewide fire prevention messaging, training for local fire departments, and interagency coordination; and a $3.697 million Cooperative Forestry Assistance grant (CFDA 10.664) awarded August 13, 2024, through July 31, 2029, supporting consolidated urban and community forestry, forest stewardship, forest health, and state and volunteer fire capacity programs.

Customer concentration is extreme. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service accounts for 96% of awards across two administrative lines: the Forest Service Region 1–Northern Region (40 awards) and the Forest Service proper (29 awards), representing 69 of 75 tracked prime awards. Combined potential value across all 78 awards is $82 million, with virtually all federal funding flowing from USDA Forest Service programs under CFDA numbers 10.664 (Cooperative Forestry Assistance), 10.697 (State & Private Forestry Hazardous Fuel Reduction), and 10.698 (State & Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Assistance). Minor customers include the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (three awards), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (two awards for disaster assistance sub-grants routed through the State of North Dakota), and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (one $330,342 Cooperative Agreement for a Native American Pedestrian Safety Demonstration project, April 2024–April 2026, representing an outlier outside the vendor's core forest service mission). The vendor holds two sub-award positions from the State of North Dakota (management costs and emergency protective measures), classified as grant sub-awards rather than sub-contracts.

The vendor operates no named parent contract vehicles, GWACs, BPAs, or agency IDIQs; all work flows through project grants and cooperative agreements directly from federal grantor agencies. Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months is substantial: awards with ultimate completion dates through June 2028 include multiple consolidated forestry programs grants and hazardous fuels reduction awards scheduled to expire July 31, 2027 and June 30, 2028, representing a rolling recompete cycle typical of five-year USDA Forest Service grant terms.

The vendor's trajectory shows relative stability with modest recent decline. Annual award counts held steady at six to eight grants per year from 2022 through 2025, dropping to four awards by mid-2026, though the most recent obligations (June 10, 2026) include high-value grants suggesting continued pipeline momentum. All awards obligate state matching funds and leverage state-level wildfire prevention infrastructure, with particular emphasis on protecting oil and gas production assets in western North Dakota, a recurring strategic justification across fire assistance and hazardous fuels reduction grants.