Scott Hays-Strom

Scott Hays-Strom serves as an Archaeologist with the Gila National Forest under the U.S. Forest Service, where he plays a critical role in ensuring compliance with federal cultural resource management laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. His procurement activities center on securing professional archaeological services to assess, mitigate, and document cultural heritage impacts from forest infrastructure projects, including trail maintenance, utility upgrades, and fire mitigation efforts. He acts as the technical lead in identifying acquisition needs, defining scope of work, and evaluating contractor qualifications to ensure scientifically rigorous and legally defensible cultural resource outcomes. While specific contractor names are not publicly available, Hays-Strom maintains consistent partnerships with professional archaeological firms and cultural resource management consultants possessing specialized expertise in Southwestern archaeology, historic preservation, and tribal consultation protocols. His working relationships emphasize technical competence, adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, and collaborative engagement with Indigenous communities to ensure culturally informed decision-making. Hays-Strom demonstrates a robust commitment to socioeconomic equity, directing 100% of his procurement activity toward small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate strategy to cultivate capacity among small, locally based cultural resource firms, many of which are owned by women, minorities, or veterans, thereby supporting regional economic development while ensuring high-quality compliance services. His procurement focus is exclusively under NAICS 541990 (All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services), encompassing field surveys, data recovery, artifact analysis, archival research, and cultural resource monitoring. He specializes in acquiring services that support pre-construction assessments, Section 106 consultations, and tribal historic preservation office coordination, leveraging deep technical knowledge in Southwestern precontact and historic-period archaeology to guide acquisition strategy and contractor selection.