Paleowest LLC

Paleowest LLC, doing business as Chronicle Heritage, delivers archaeological surveys, cultural resource inventories, and historical assessments to federal land-management and defense agencies as a small business prime contractor on 96% of recent awards and generates the remainder through subcontracts to larger environmental and project-management primes. The Phoenix-based firm competes predominantly full-and-open on the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule and holds three single-award IDIQs—a $50 million blanket purchase agreement with the USDA Forest Service for integrated natural and cultural resources management (effective through March 2033), a $6 million indefinite delivery contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for cultural resource services across Southern California and the Southwest, and a $2 million NRCS IDIQ for Arizona cultural surveys. Paleowest carries two subsidiaries, Commonwealth Heritage Group LLC and Codifi LLC, and has been registered in SAM.gov since 2006.

Across the past five years, Paleowest has captured 478 awards with $264.7 million in combined potential value and $65.6 million in obligated dollars. Award volume declined from 43 in 2022 to 30 in 2024, stabilizing at 33 in 2025 before dropping to 4 in 2026 (a partial-year snapshot through July). The top five customer agencies by award count are the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Region 3 (Southwestern, 69 awards, $32.7 million), the Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation (54 awards, $21.4 million), BLM Colorado Region (51 awards, $2.2 million), BLM Idaho Region (34 awards, $3.5 million), and Forest Service Region 8 (Southern, 20 awards, $26 million). By dollar value, however, the Navy Naval Facilities Engineering Command ($35 million across 10 awards), Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District ($31.7 million across 12 awards), and Forest Service R8 ($26 million) anchor the portfolio. Paleowest delivers Class III archaeological surveys, cultural resource inventories, submerged archaeological assessments, historical building evaluations, and National Historic Preservation Act compliance documentation across wildfire recovery projects, renewable energy development, timber sales, land management, and military facility upgrades, primarily in the Western United States but with occasional work in the Southeast, Puerto Rico, and India (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency archaeological remains recovery).

Representative prime work includes a $1.5 million emergency burial recovery contract with the National Park Service for Vicksburg National Cemetery stabilization, a $1.24 million Marine Air Ground Combat Center delivery order for cultural site evaluation and surveys across a 3,707-acre training facility in California, a $1.07 million Forest Service delivery order for archaeological survey supporting fuels reduction at the Kaibab National Forest, a $792.9 thousand National Park Service delivery order for emergency burial recovery at Vicksburg, a $677.2 thousand BLM BPA call for cultural resource inventories supporting broadband infrastructure projects across Oregon, and multiple $300–$500 thousand awards from BLM and Forest Service regional offices for Class III cultural surveys on thousands of acres. On the subcontractor side, Paleowest performs under Ch2M Hill / CDM on disaster-support and environmental consulting projects, under Solv LLC on historic properties management and environmental review services, and under EA Engineering on archaeological and cultural surveys for Superfund sites and National Park Service facilities.

The Multiple Award Schedule vehicle anchors 316 task orders worth $73.5 million—over 28% of Paleowest's total portfolio potential value. The Forest Service's Land Management Integrated Resources (LMIR) single-award BPA ($50 million ceiling through March 2033) and the Corps of Engineers' Cultural Resource Services IDIQ ($6 million, expiring September 2025) are the firm's largest federal contract vehicles by ceiling; together with the NRCS Arizona IDIQ ($2 million), they provide the foundation for on-call delivery-order procurement across the Southwest and Southeast regions. Twenty-four awards carrying $4.1 million in potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing near-term recompete exposure, particularly on the Corps IDIQ vehicle expiring in September 2025.

SCI data (FY2022–FY2024, service contracts above the $150,000 threshold) show Paleowest invoiced $7 million on 26 prime service contracts, with FY2024 invoicing of $3.7 million and a reported FTE footprint of 25.7 personnel. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI prime contracts range from a 10th percentile of $0/hr (likely zero-value modifications or cost-sharing arrangements) to a median of $59.90/hr to a 90th percentile of $338.34/hr, reflecting a portfolio spanning administrative and technical labor through senior-level project principal roles. Paleowest's GSA Schedule labor offering spans 15 categories, priced from $34.20/hr (Laboratory Technician) to $99/hr (Project Principal with Masters degree and ten years' experience), with no security-cleared positions. Subcontracting on SCI prime contracts is minimal—one named subcontractor reported across all prime records with zero average sub-hours share—indicating Paleowest builds most delivery teams with its own personnel. Combined with the 4% sub-award ratio in the award portfolio, the firm operates predominantly as a prime contractor and retains delivery execution in-house.

Paleowest's customer base is heavily concentrated in federal land management and conservation: Forest Service (89 awards across all regions), BLM (139 awards across all regions), Corps of Engineers, Navy Facilities Engineering Command, National Park Service, and NRCS. Environmental Consulting Services (NAICS 541620) and Research and Development in Social Sciences and Humanities (NAICS 541720) account for 279 and 131 awards respectively, with the PSC code Special Studies/Analysis—Archeological/Paleontological dominating at 256 awards. This focus on western public-lands archaeology and cultural compliance creates natural dependency on the annual budget cycles of DOI and USDA agencies managing forests, ranges, and conservation lands; growth in wildfire recovery funding (IIJA/Inflation Reduction Act) and infrastructure projects has anchored several large awards, but the decline in 2024–2025 award volume suggests tightening federal land-management budgets or consolidation of task order activity under fewer, larger parent vehicles.

Archaeological and paleontological consulting services