Melissa K. Paquin-Leon

Melissa K. Paquin-Leon serves as a Contracting Officer, Enterprise, for the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 3 Southwestern Regional Office, where she manages the full lifecycle of federal acquisitions supporting critical forest infrastructure and public land stewardship. Her portfolio encompasses civil works, facility maintenance, and environmental services essential to sustaining trail systems, roads, water and sewer networks, and visitor facilities across the region. She executes complex procurements under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, ensuring compliance with statutory mandates while advancing the agency’s mission of sustainable forest management through efficient, transparent contracting practices. Ms. Paquin-Leon maintains a consistent working relationship with GERMRIP LLC, a primary contractor delivering specialized support activities for forestry operations. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for long-term, performance-based partnerships with vendors capable of delivering technical expertise in forest management, infrastructure resilience, and environmental compliance. She engages a mix of large and small business vendors, fostering reliable vendor relationships grounded in accountability, quality assurance, and mission alignment. Her procurement strategy prioritizes small business participation, with over 42% of awards structured as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, and a notable 4.4% allocated to HUBZone-certified firms. While the majority of acquisitions are unrestricted, her deliberate use of socioeconomic set-asides demonstrates a strong commitment to expanding economic opportunity for disadvantaged and geographically targeted businesses within the forestry sector. Ms. Paquin-Leon’s primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry), which accounts for nearly 87% of her contracting activity, encompassing vegetation management, wildfire mitigation support, and forest inventory services. She also oversees limited acquisitions in highway and civil engineering construction (237310, 237990), engineering services (541330), and specialized translation services (541930), reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of forest infrastructure projects. Her technical expertise centers on environmental compliance, land management operations, and infrastructure lifecycle support.