Lester Harris

Lester Harris serves as a key procurement professional within the Eastern Region USDA Forest Service, supporting the agency’s mission to sustain healthy forest ecosystems through strategic acquisition of environmental services, infrastructure maintenance, and wildfire mitigation resources. He manages a broad spectrum of federal contracts focused on land management operations, ecological restoration, and public facility modernization, ensuring compliance with federal environmental and procurement regulations. His work directly enables field-level implementation of fire risk reduction, watershed protection, and habitat conservation initiatives by securing critical services and technical expertise from qualified vendors. While specific contractor names are not currently available, Harris maintains collaborative relationships with a diverse pool of federal contractors specializing in forestry, environmental consulting, heavy civil construction, and emergency response services. He engages with both large prime contractors and specialized small firms capable of delivering field-based technical support, equipment maintenance, and ecological monitoring under complex regulatory frameworks. His procurement approach emphasizes performance-based contracting and long-term service agreements that align with the Forest Service’s operational tempo and resource constraints. Harris consistently prioritizes open competition, with 100% of his acquisitions issued without set-aside designations, reflecting a preference for full and open bidding under FAR Part 12 and Part 36. This approach supports broad market access while maintaining rigorous technical evaluation standards. Though socioeconomic set-asides such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB are not currently utilized in his portfolio, his processes remain fully compliant with all applicable small business participation goals and encourage vendor diversity through transparent solicitation practices. His primary procurement focus centers on NAICS categories related to environmental restoration (541620), forest management services (115310), and heavy and civil engineering construction (237310). He routinely acquires services including prescribed burning, invasive species control, trail and road maintenance, fire suppression infrastructure, and hydrologic monitoring systems, demonstrating deep expertise in natural resource management contracting and operational readiness procurement.