National Baptists Masticate on the Coconino: Is This Forest Service Grant Really About “Equity”?

Copies of the National Baptist Convention Master Agreement and Coconino SPA was sent to me out of concern about church and state.   The Feds do give many grants to religious organizations (such as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example).  It seems to me that those grants are usually given to organizations that are already doing something (say providing food or housing) and helping them to do more.  They may or may not have a match, as far as I know.

*After I wrote this, I noted I didn’t point out that this denomination of Baptists is Black; I don’t know whether that matters or not to readers, but seems relevant to the idea of “equity” and how it is interpreted by the Forest Service.*

There are several interesting and perhaps unusual things about these agreements, and I’d like to highlight a few here.

1.  NBC does not seem to have experience in activities around the Wildland Fire Strategy, and the MA (Master Agreement) says this is what their interests are:

Embracing the stewardship of creation and the empowerment of individuals, the National Baptist Convention (NBC) strives to foster a nurturing environment both spiritually and naturally. In collaboration with like-minded organizations, NBC endeavors to sustain and enrich the lives of communities, while preserving and enhancing the health and beauty of the nation’s forests and grasslands. Through evangelism, education, and active engagement, NBC aims to cultivate a legacy of faith and conservation, nurturing a harmonious existence between humanity and the earth.

In the background section, the MA says:

Two significant recent investments from Congress-the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL- 2021) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA – 2022)-allocated substantial funding to the Forest Service to meet these challenges. In addition to other tools, this national agreement and partnership will be a concerted effort to address such needs and may include funding from both BIL and IRA, as well as regular appropriations, to allow for tailoring of specific projects to the needs of individual Regions and Forests where the fuels reduction and ecosystem restoration requirements are the greatest.

2.  In the MA there seems to be a peculiar partnership with a for-profit government contracting entity.

D. ESTABLISH SUB-PARTNERSHIP. The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. will establish a Sub-Partnership with Dynamic Construction Group LLC to coordinate specific roles and responsibilities per each established supplemental project agreement (SPA) to accomplish mutually agreed upon work projects.

a. The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. will support all administrative and financial management of the agreement. The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. will also support outreach and engagement activities, such as (but not limited to) meeting design, meeting facilitation, public information development/maintenance, development of workshops and educational materials, recruiting and training volunteers, partnership building, and shared stewardship coordination.
b. Dynamic Construction Group LLC will support implementation of on-ground activities and improvements, such as (but not limited to) vegetation thinning to reduce high levels of hazardous fuels and improve forest resilience to wildfire and overall resource health, NEPA Planning and supporting surveys, watershed restoration and other enhancements of aquatic habitat, cultural site restoration and protection, reforestation, noxious weed abatement/control, and other activities that improve wildlife habitat, recreation infrastructure among other integrated accomplishments on National Forest System lands.

What can we discern about Dynamic Construction Group LLC?  This is really above my investigative paygrade, but it seems to be a company based in Baton Rouge, LA that “provides services related to disaster response, infrastructure construction and facility support.”  According to this site, they have two IDIQ awards, one with DHS with a potential value of $75 billion to construct “influx care facilities housing unaccompanied children.”  So conceivably it would be easy for the FS to contract with them directly.  It also sounds like they have no experience in fuel treatment work, either.  How can a grant have a “sub-partnership” with a for-profit entity?  For us in the cheap seats, it seems like a very roundabout, and unnecessarily expensive, way to get a mastication project on the Coconino done.

3.  Match.  I have to say I loved this writing.  This is the justification for no match on this grant:

The equitable distribution of benefits to disadvantaged communities and Tribes is central to our work and the focus of recent Executive Orders. How we consider, communicate with, outreach to, and support these communities is critical to our success as an agency. The Forest Service has been heavily engaged in expanding its partnership network to meet equity goals and objectives in support of the Wildfire Crisis Strategy (WCS) and other agency priorities. This agreement with the National Baptist Convention has been created to further support equity in the implementation of these priorities. We are developing a master participating agreement that will be implemented through supplemental project agreements, similar to existing Keystone Agreements. We are seeking a waiver of match for all work, to maintain consistency with other keystone partners and ensure success with this new partner.

As Anonymous stated, what are these “equity” goals?  It doesn’t seem equitable to not compete federal work.  You could argue that any grant, anywhere, anytime, with anyone, shouldn’t have a match.. “to maintain consistencey with other keystone partners and “ensure success.””

I’m sure there are disadvantaged people (and Tribes!) around the Coconino who could be hired via a standard contract to do this work.  I hope that “equity” isn’t a code word for..spending tax dollars on layers of non-competed NGOs and their for-profit allies, rather than just contracting for the work directly with local (disadvantaged) outfits.

If anyone else knows of peculiar Master Agreements or SPAs, please contact me.
I’m hoping that some real journalist will write a story about this.. so far none have been interested.

Here’s the statement of work:

Attached are redacted copies of the Master Agreement and the SPA.

NBC Master Agreement with FS_Redacted
spa for nbc002_Redacted