Denise Hilkey

Denise Hilkey serves as the Technical Point of Contact for the Mount Hood National Forest, a unit of the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture. In this role, she provides critical technical oversight for procurement initiatives aligned with the Forest Service’s mission of ecological stewardship and infrastructure resilience. She collaborates closely with project managers and field staff to define technical requirements for maintenance, restoration, and operational support contracts, ensuring that acquisitions meet rigorous environmental and safety standards. Her expertise guides the development of statements of work, evaluation criteria, and technical acceptability assessments for contracts focused on forest management infrastructure and environmental services. While specific contractor names are not publicly available, Hilkey works with a network of specialized vendors capable of delivering technical solutions for remote, ecologically sensitive environments. Her partnerships emphasize firms with proven experience in sustainable forestry practices, hazardous waste handling, and rural infrastructure support. She fosters collaborative relationships with contractors who demonstrate adaptive project management and compliance with federal environmental regulations, ensuring seamless execution in challenging terrain. Hilkey’s procurement strategy is fully aligned with the agency’s commitment to small business participation, as all acquisitions are structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate effort to cultivate local and regional vendors with expertise in forest-adjacent services, promoting economic development in rural communities while ensuring access to niche technical capabilities. Her consistent use of small business set-asides underscores a strategic preference for agility, community knowledge, and long-term partnership over large-scale contracting. Her primary technical focus lies in NAICS 562991—Septic Tank and Related Services—reflecting the agency’s need for specialized wastewater management systems in remote ranger stations, visitor centers, and field camps. She specializes in procuring septic system installation, maintenance, and environmental compliance services tailored to sensitive forest ecosystems, demonstrating deep domain expertise in decentralized sanitation solutions that meet both regulatory and ecological standards.