Gordon L Fitzwater

Gordon L. Fitzwater serves as a Contract Technician with the USDA Forest Service, supporting the agency’s mission to sustain forest and grassland ecosystems through strategic procurement of critical operational services. In this role, he facilitates the acquisition of specialized support activities essential to wildfire mitigation, ecological restoration, and infrastructure resilience in remote and rugged terrains. Fitzwater manages a diverse portfolio of contracts under FAR Part 13 and Part 15 procedures, focusing on time-and-materials, labor-hour, and cost-reimbursement arrangements to meet urgent and mission-critical field requirements. His work ensures operational readiness by aligning contracting actions with Forest Service priorities in forest health, emergency response, and resource management. Fitzwater maintains consistent working relationships with key contractors including ACI FEDERAL INC, ONE STOP RECRUITING LLC, GONDO ROY E MD, THE LOCUMS CO, LLC, and AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC. These partnerships span technical support, workforce staffing, medical services, and specialized engineering solutions, reflecting a reliance on niche vendors capable of delivering tailored expertise in high-risk, low-access environments. His contracting patterns emphasize agility and responsiveness, often requiring rapid mobilization of qualified personnel and mission-specific equipment to support field operations across national forests and grasslands. A strong advocate for small business participation, Fitzwater consistently prioritizes socioeconomic set-asides, with over 95% of his acquisitions structured to support small businesses. HUBZone set-asides account for nearly half of his awards, while total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5 represent half of all procurements, demonstrating a deliberate commitment to economic development in underserved rural communities. His contracting approach actively leverages HUBZone and small business programs to strengthen local capacity and enhance workforce diversity in forest service operations. His procurement focus centers on NAICS 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry), which constitutes nearly half of his portfolio, followed by 237990 (Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction). He routinely acquires services related to forest thinning, invasive species control, trail and road maintenance, and emergency infrastructure repair, demonstrating deep technical familiarity with land management operations and field-based engineering support.