Mary Shinney

Mary Shinney serves as a procurement specialist within the Boise National Forest, supporting the U.S. Forest Service’s mission to sustain forest ecosystems through strategic acquisitions of professional and technical services. She manages a diverse portfolio of contracts focused on ecological restoration, land management, and infrastructure support, ensuring compliance with federal procurement regulations and agency priorities. Her work directly enables critical initiatives such as reforestation, invasive species control, and wildfire risk mitigation by securing expert services that align with scientific and operational needs. Shinney’s acquisitions are primarily centered on professional, scientific, and technical support, reflecting the agency’s reliance on specialized expertise over commodity procurement. Her contractor relationships are built on a foundation of collaboration with professional services firms specializing in ecological consulting, land surveying, and systems design. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with small businesses and certified disadvantaged firms, fostering long-term partnerships that bring technical innovation and local knowledge to forest management challenges. Her contracting approach emphasizes performance-based outcomes, requiring vendors to deliver measurable results in habitat restoration, data collection, and environmental compliance. Shinney demonstrates a strong commitment to socioeconomic contracting, with 40% of her acquisitions structured as small business set-asides—30% under total small business set-asides (FAR 19.5) and 10% competed under the 8(a) program. This reflects a deliberate strategy to expand opportunities for disadvantaged entrepreneurs while ensuring access to high-quality, mission-critical services. Her contracting patterns align with federal goals to increase small business participation in natural resource management. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 541990 (All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services), which encompasses ecological assessments, environmental planning, and conservation science. She also regularly procures surveying and mapping services (NAICS 541370) and computer systems design (NAICS 541512) to support geospatial analysis and data-driven land management. This technical expertise ensures that Boise National Forest operations are informed by accurate, timely, and scientifically validated inputs.