Maria Gonzalez

Maria C. Gonzalez serves as a Contract Specialist for the Ochoco National Forest, where she plays a pivotal role in executing the U.S. Forest Service’s mission of ecological stewardship through strategic procurement. She manages the full lifecycle of acquisitions supporting active forest management, including silvicultural operations, fuel reduction, and infrastructure resilience projects. Her work ensures compliance with federal contracting regulations while aligning purchases with the agency’s ecological restoration priorities, particularly in riparian zones and wildfire-prone landscapes. Gonzalez routinely handles service-based contracts under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, with a focus on environmental and land management support. Her contractor relationships center on small businesses and specialized service providers experienced in forestry operations, habitat restoration, and rural infrastructure development. While no single vendor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages firms with technical expertise in ecological services, trail and road maintenance, and forest health interventions. Her procurement approach emphasizes collaboration with locally rooted contractors who possess on-the-ground knowledge of central Oregon’s terrain and ecosystem needs, fostering long-term, mission-aligned partnerships. Gonzalez demonstrates a strong commitment to socioeconomic contracting, with 74.1% of her awards designated for small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. She actively prioritizes small business participation, with HUBZone contractors accounting for 3.5% of her awards, reflecting a deliberate effort to channel opportunities to economically distressed communities. Her contracting patterns align with federal goals to enhance equity and local economic resilience through targeted socioeconomic preferences. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry), where she secures services such as prescribed burning, invasive species control, and tree planting. She also procures highway and bridge construction (237310) to maintain access to remote forest areas, alongside janitorial, septic, and educational services that support field station operations. Her expertise spans environmental compliance, land use logistics, and the technical nuances of ecological contracting within federal land management frameworks.