Long term trends in contracting and the impact of the National Fire Plan in Northern California
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Date
2003
Authors
Moseley, Cassandra
Balaev, Mikhail, 1976-
Lake, Adam
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon
Abstract
This report (1) documents changes in Forest Service procurement contracting between the early 1990s and the early 2000s and (2) evaluates whether the authority to consider local benefit when awarding the National Fire Plan (NFP)
funded contracts has impacted contracting opportunities in Northern California. In sum, the Forest Service’s forest management contracting and the number of contractors working on national forests in Northern California declined over the last decade. Contractors are located closer to national forests than they once were, but this has not translated to more opportunities for rural communities. Instead, contractors from rural communities have seen their share of the contracting dollars decline, while contractors from Redding and mid-size towns have seen their share of the contracting increase. Despite the decrease in money being spent on forest management contracting, the average contract size increased. The increase in average contract size may partially explain the decline in rural contract
capture because we might expect rural contractors to be smaller than those based in mid-sized towns or urban areas. The decline in labor-intensive work may be reducing the demand for mobile crews from California’s Central Valley
and Oregon’s Willamette Valley. In sum, the National Fire Plan authority does appear to have created opportunities
for businesses closer to national forests than was the case for regularly funded contracts, and that this translated to additional opportunities for nearby rural communities as well. However, because of the small number of contracts
involved, this analysis is not conclusive. Regardless, National Fire Plan funding has not come close to replacing the amount of money that was being spent on forest management contracting in the early 1990s.
Description
31 p.