Maria de la Luz Pino

Maria de la Luz Pino serves as a key procurement lead within the U.S. Forest Service’s CSA Southwest 5 office, where she manages acquisition strategies aligned with the agency’s mission of sustaining forest infrastructure and ecological health. She oversees the solicitation and award of contracts for critical operational services, including forest maintenance, facility repairs, and environmental support activities, ensuring compliance with federal procurement regulations and agency priorities. Her work directly enables field operations by securing reliable vendors for essential resources that support public safety, trail preservation, and water system integrity across Southwest national forests. Pino maintains consistent partnerships with a curated group of contractors, including American Classic Construction Inc., Habitat Protection, Inc., and Southwest Research LLC, among others. These relationships are built on proven performance in delivering specialized services such as forest health assessments, trail rehabilitation, and wildlife habitat mitigation. Her procurement approach emphasizes reliability, local expertise, and technical proficiency, fostering long-term vendor collaborations that align with the Forest Service’s mission-critical needs and operational timelines. A staunch advocate for small business participation, Pino directs 92.9% of her acquisitions toward total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, reflecting a deep commitment to socioeconomic contracting goals. She consistently prioritizes small, locally based firms, enabling economic development in rural communities while ensuring access to niche capabilities essential for forest management. Her contracting patterns demonstrate a deliberate alignment with the government’s broader objectives to expand opportunities for small, disadvantaged, and community-based enterprises. Her primary procurement focus centers on NAICS 561720 (janitorial and sanitation services for public facilities), 115310 (forestry support activities), and 332618 (fabricated wire products for trail and infrastructure applications). She also regularly acquires specialized equipment through 532289 (consumer goods rental), including temporary housing, portable water systems, and forestry tools. This technical domain expertise underscores her proficiency in procuring mission-enabling goods and services that directly support field operations in remote and ecologically sensitive environments.