Salmon River Helicopters, Inc.

Salmon River Helicopters, Inc., a woman-owned, HUBZone-certified small business, provides Type 1 helicopter wildland fire suppression and aerial support operations to federal land management agencies as a prime contractor across no set-aside designations, competing in full-and-open procurements despite holding SBA certifications. The firm is headquartered in Riggins, Idaho, operates as a Subchapter S corporation, and carries dual SBA designations as a self-certified small disadvantaged business and woman-owned small business; it competes predominantly against unrestricted competition rather than through set-aside vehicles.

Salmon River Helicopters' federal footprint is almost entirely concentrated in wildland firefighting. The vendor holds two $50 million indefinite delivery contracts with the National Interagency Fire Center — one for Type 1 helicopter support services through December 31, 2034, and one for Type 2 services through December 31, 2033 — and executes task orders against these vehicles and a basic ordering agreement for call-when-needed helicopter support. Representative recent work includes a $3.46 million firm fixed-price delivery order from the Department of Agriculture Forest Service for call-when-needed Type 1 helicopter services supporting 2025 Salmon River fire suppression operations (completion November 30, 2025), multiple 2026 delivery orders for wildland fire suppression ranging from $150 thousand to $816 thousand awarded by NIFC between July and September 2026, and a $117 thousand delivery order from NIFC in September 2023 for aviation services supporting wildland fire management efforts. Work is performed from the company's Riggins, Idaho base with operational support from western U.S. locations including Page, Arizona and Farmington, New Mexico, and encompasses fire suppression, water bucket operations, reconnaissance, and administrative aerial support.

Customer concentration is extreme. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 30 of 51 prime contract awards (77% of the award count) and $136.7 million of the combined potential value (97% of total potential value across the vendor's federal footprint). Ancillary USDA Forest Service regions — R4 (Intermountain), R3 (Southwestern), and R2 (Rocky Mountain) — account for 16 additional awards totaling $32.8 million, and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region adds 5 awards valued at $4.9 million. The vendor serves 15 distinct agencies overall but the distribution is nearly monopolistic within fire management.

Salmon River Helicopters places 16 task orders against a Basic Ordering Agreement (12024B20G5055) for $5.1 million combined potential value and 10 task orders against the Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 IDC for $8 million combined value. Additional vehicle activity includes an indefinite delivery contract (AG84N8C140031) carrying 4 task orders valued at $5.3 million and two other IDCs with 2 task orders each. The vendor's position across parent vehicles is entirely dependent on recurring fire-season demand from NIFC and regional Forest Service commands.

Activity has grown sharply over recent years. The vendor recorded 2 awards in 2022, 5 in 2023, 12 in 2024, 5 in 2025, and 6 in 2026 to date. However, the recompete cliff is minimal: only 1 award (valued at $817 thousand) faces ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. The bulk of Salmon River's $179 million combined potential value across all 66 awards carries long-dated completion windows tied to seasonal fire-season execution.

On Service Contract Inventory records, Salmon River reported $4.2 million in SCI-invoiced revenue in FY2025 against 3.4 FTEs. SCI coverage is limited — only 6 records spanning FY2024–FY2025 — and captures a narrow slice of the vendor's federal services activity; the vast majority of Salmon River's federal revenue flows through goods/services delivery orders for helicopter operations, which fall outside the SCI reporting threshold or classification. The vendor performs work directly without subcontractors; across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the average subcontractor-hours share is 0%.

Salmon River holds one federal subcontract, a helicopter transport task under an Inland Crane Inc. prime contract (ID FS ERFO 2017(1)-29(1)) awarded in April 2023 for bridge component transportation. The subcontract footprint is negligible; the vendor operates as a pure prime contractor in federal work.

The vendor's total obligated dollars across all awards stand at $29.7 million against the $179 million combined potential value, indicating early-stage task-order execution on recently awarded IDCs. The competitive posture is full-and-open despite HUBZone and small-disadvantaged-business status — none of the enumerated awards carry set-aside designations — suggesting Salmon River competes on price and technical capability in national fire-suppression procurement rather than relying on socioeconomic reserve channels.

Salmon River Helicopters (SRH) is a small aviation company primarily focused on aerial power line support, aerial fire fighting, and fire rehab. SRH conducts a variety of other aerial operations including remote non scheduled freight, airplane recovery, concrete/cement transport, ski-lift assembly, ag services, helicopter logging, and HVAC transportation.

SRH is a small women owned and Hubzone certified firm. SRH has been in business since 1993 and is a family owned/operated business.