Cheryl R. Coon

Cheryl Coon serves as a key procurement lead within the Hoosier National Forest, part of the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture, where she manages acquisitions critical to ecological stewardship and public land management. Her responsibilities encompass the full lifecycle of contracting for support activities essential to forest health, including wildfire mitigation, trail maintenance, campground operations, and habitat restoration. She ensures compliance with federal procurement regulations while aligning acquisitions with the agency’s strategic goals of sustainability, resilience, and public access. Her work directly supports field operations by securing specialized services that maintain infrastructure integrity and ecological balance across the national forest system. Cheryl Coon collaborates primarily with small businesses and specialized service providers focused on forestry support activities. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages a network of local and regional vendors with expertise in forest management, invasive species control, prescribed burn planning, and recreational facility upkeep. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for long-term, performance-based partnerships that emphasize adaptability, on-the-ground responsiveness, and environmental compliance. These relationships are cultivated through transparent solicitation processes and clear performance metrics tied to ecological outcomes. Coon demonstrates an unwavering commitment to small business participation, with 100% of her acquisitions structured as full small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate strategy to empower local entrepreneurs and foster economic resilience in rural communities surrounding the Hoosier National Forest. She prioritizes contracting with firms certified under various socioeconomic programs, including SBA 8(a), HUBZone, and Women-Owned Small Businesses, ensuring equitable access to federal opportunities while strengthening the capacity of the forestry support ecosystem. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 115310—Support Activities for Forestry—encompassing services such as vegetation management, forest inventory, erosion control, fire prevention logistics, and visitor services infrastructure. She specializes in procuring technical, labor-intensive solutions that require field expertise, environmental permitting knowledge, and adherence to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) protocols, making her a critical link between ecological objectives and operational execution.