Carol Hughes

Carol Hughes serves as a Contracting Officer Representative for the Pacific Northwest Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, where she provides critical oversight and technical expertise for engineering and environmental consulting contracts. In this role, she ensures contractual compliance with federal acquisition regulations, monitors contractor performance, and facilitates communication between field operations and service providers to support ecological stewardship, infrastructure maintenance, and public safety across sensitive forested landscapes. Her acquisitions primarily involve professional technical services essential to sustaining forest management operations in remote and ecologically complex regions. Ms. Hughes maintains strong, ongoing relationships with a core group of specialized contractors including TRIPLE C-THE A & E GROUP LLC, GREAT WEST ENGINEERING INC, GDM-AE, INC., THOMAS DEAN & HOSKINS INC, and TERRAPHASE ENGINEERING INC. These partnerships are built on sustained performance in environmental assessments, land use planning, and engineering support services tailored to federal forest lands. Her working relationships emphasize long-term collaboration, technical reliability, and adherence to rigorous environmental compliance standards, ensuring that contractor deliverables align with the agency’s mission of ecological integrity and operational resilience. A staunch advocate for small business participation, Ms. Hughes consistently applies Total Small Business Set-Aside authority under FAR 19.5, directing 100% of her procurement actions to qualified small businesses. This unwavering commitment reflects a strategic effort to cultivate regional economic development and ensure diverse, locally rooted expertise supports federal land management objectives. Her contracting patterns prioritize small firms with demonstrated capacity in technical consulting, reinforcing the agency’s goal of inclusive procurement and community engagement. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 541690—Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services—encompassing environmental impact analysis, geospatial surveying, habitat restoration planning, and forest engineering design. These services underpin the agency’s ability to execute science-based land management, maintain infrastructure in rugged terrain, and comply with NEPA and Endangered Species Act requirements, making her a key enabler of the Forest Service’s operational and ecological mission.