Cecil Rich

Cecil Rich serves as a Forest Aquatic Biologist with the Cibola National Forest, where he plays a critical role in evaluating and guiding environmental compliance for aquatic resource management projects. His expertise informs the acquisition of technical services essential to maintaining stream health, riparian resilience, and watershed integrity across federal forest lands. Rich is directly involved in procuring engineering and ecological consulting services that support wildfire mitigation, erosion control, and recreation infrastructure sustainability. He ensures all acquisitions align with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements and USDA environmental standards, making him a key liaison between field science and contract execution. Rich maintains strong, ongoing relationships with RELIANCE CONTRACTORS INC and ALERTWEST, INC, both of which provide specialized aquatic monitoring, habitat restoration, and stream stabilization services. These vendor partnerships are characterized by deep technical collaboration, with contractors often embedded in field operations to deliver real-time data and adaptive management solutions. His working pattern emphasizes long-term, performance-based contracts that require scientific rigor, regulatory adherence, and measurable ecological outcomes. Rich consistently prioritizes small business participation, directing 100% of his acquisitions under the Small Business Set-Aside provisions of FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate strategy to cultivate capacity among locally rooted, environmentally focused firms, ensuring economic development and community engagement in forest stewardship. His contracting approach actively supports the growth of small businesses with demonstrated expertise in ecological science and environmental engineering. His procurement focus is exclusively under NAICS 541330 (Engineering Services), encompassing hydrologic modeling, aquatic habitat assessments, stream channel design, and biological surveys. He procures services that integrate field biology with civil and environmental engineering to sustain aquatic ecosystems under increasing anthropogenic and climatic pressures, reinforcing the Forest Service’s mission of science-based land management.