Danette Cappello

Danette Cappello serves as a key procurement professional within the CSA East 6 USDA-FS, supporting the U.S. Forest Service’s mission to sustain forest ecosystems through strategic acquisition of operational services. She manages a diverse portfolio of contracts focused on forestry support, land management infrastructure, and facility maintenance, ensuring compliance with federal procurement regulations while advancing environmental stewardship. Her acquisitions primarily support field operations, including soil preparation, vegetation management, and janitorial services critical to public land accessibility and safety. Cappello’s work directly enables the agency’s operational readiness and ecological resilience through timely, compliant contract execution. She maintains strong, recurring relationships with a select group of specialized contractors, including American Classic Construction Inc., Zimmer Plowing LLC, and Lewis Mobile Welding LLC, all of which provide niche field services essential to forest management. These partnerships reflect a preference for local, technically proficient vendors capable of delivering responsive, on-site support in remote and rugged terrain. Her contracting patterns indicate a reliance on trusted small businesses with proven expertise in forestry support, mobile welding, and snow and debris removal, fostering reliable, long-term vendor engagement grounded in performance and reliability. Cappello demonstrates an exceptional commitment to small business participation, with 98.3% of her acquisitions set aside for small businesses under FAR 19.5. Her procurement strategy consistently prioritizes small business set-asides, ensuring broad economic opportunity for local entrepreneurs and specialized service providers. This high rate of small business awarding underscores a deliberate, mission-aligned effort to strengthen community resilience and diversify the contractor base in support of federal land stewardship goals. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry), which accounts for over half of her portfolio, followed by janitorial and landscaping services under 561720 and 561730. She specializes in acquiring technical services for invasive species control, soil stabilization, and forest infrastructure maintenance, reflecting deep domain expertise in ecological operations and public land support systems.