Beth Willhite

Beth Willhite serves as an Entomologist with the Mount Hood National Forest under the U.S. Forest Service, where she provides critical scientific expertise to support ecological management and pest mitigation efforts. Her role integrates biological surveillance, invasive species assessment, and forest health monitoring into the agency’s procurement strategy, ensuring that contracting actions align with science-based resource management goals. She typically handles acquisitions for entomological research services, biological control agents, pest detection equipment, and habitat restoration tools that directly support forest resilience and public safety initiatives. While specific contractor names are not publicly available, Willhite collaborates with a diverse network of environmental science vendors, academic research institutions, and specialized biological supply firms. Her working relationships emphasize technical precision and regulatory compliance, particularly in the use of approved biocontrol organisms and non-chemical pest management technologies. She routinely engages with vendors capable of delivering field-ready diagnostic tools, specimen collection kits, and data analytics platforms tailored to forest insect monitoring programs. Willhite maintains a strong commitment to small business participation, with 100% of her acquisitions structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate strategy to foster innovation and local economic development by prioritizing small, woman-owned, and minority-owned enterprises with expertise in ecological services and environmental technology. Her contracting patterns consistently favor firms certified under socioeconomic programs that enhance capacity-building within the conservation technology sector. Her procurement focus centers on NAICS categories related to scientific research and development services, environmental consulting, and biological supply manufacturing. She procures specialized equipment for insect trapping and DNA analysis, field-deployable monitoring systems, and biological control agents such as parasitoid wasps and entomopathogenic fungi. Her technical domain expertise lies in forest entomology, with deep knowledge of bark beetles, forest pathogens, and integrated pest management protocols that inform the design and evaluation of acquisition requirements.