Clifford Whitegrass

Clifford Whitegrass, doing business as Whitegrass Fire Suppression, a sole proprietor based in Browning, Montana, provides wildland fire suppression services and specialized equipment — principally Type 6 fire engines and water handling operations — to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards) under set-aside vehicles reserved for small business.

Whitegrass Fire Suppression holds multiple ownership designations: minority-owned, Native American-owned (American Indian-owned), self-certified small disadvantaged business, and service-disabled veteran-owned. The vendor competes primarily under Total Small Business set-asides on its indefinite delivery contracts and blanket purchase agreements, though many individual delivery orders against those vehicles carry no set-aside designation. Primary NAICS framing is 541330 (Support Activities for Forestry), with secondary codes for equipment rental and leasing.

Customer concentration is extreme and single-agency: the Department of Agriculture Forest Service accounts for approximately 84% of awards across the source data. Within USDA, the Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) anchors 10 awards worth $1.2 million in combined potential value, while the Forest Service's Region 1 Northern Region contributes 14 awards worth $776 thousand. The remaining 4% of awards include 3 task orders from the Bureau of Land Management Montana-Dakotas and scattered work with other USDA regional offices. The concentration pattern shows NIFC leading in potential value while Region 1 leads in award frequency.

Whitegrass Fire Suppression holds three parent IDCs: a $500,000 firm fixed-price multiple-award indefinite delivery contract awarded by NIFC on February 6, 2026 for water handling services across East Zone Regions 1, 2, 4, and 9 (running through May 30, 2030); a $250,000 USDA Forest Service IDC awarded May 30, 2025 for the same East Zone regions; and a $250,000 NIFC multiple-award IDC awarded June 2, 2022 (expired May 30, 2025) covering Regions 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9. Against these vehicles, Whitegrass has issued 8 task orders totaling $155 thousand, 7 task orders totaling $215 thousand, and 4 task orders totaling $180 thousand respectively. Recent representative work includes a $54,000 Total Small Business delivery order from Forest Service Region 1 on August 9, 2026 for wildland fire suppression in Dillon, Montana; a $90,000 Total Small Business delivery order from Region 9 on July 17, 2026 for fire suppression and water handling in Duluth, Minnesota; and a $49,201 delivery order (no set-aside) from Region 1 on June 21, 2025 for water handling services.

Activity runs at 3 to 4 awards per year over the past three years (2024–2026), with combined potential value across all 38 awards of $2.1 million and combined obligated dollars of $823 thousand (39% execution). The vendor operates as a pure prime (100% of awards); no subcontractor footprint is present in the source data. Award sites span western and northern regions — Browning, Dillon, and Helena, Montana; Susanville and other California locations; Duluth, Minnesota — reflecting geographic alignment with Forest Service regional fire suppression operations.