Search and Rescue is ready for Winter, but they can always use more help
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, December 14th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
NORTHEAST OREGON – As Christmas approaches, residents of the Pacific Northwest are settling in for a relaxing holiday season. Ski trips, hiking excursions, camping adventures, and any number of outdoor winter activities are lining local itineraries. For a dedicated group of volunteers, however, the snowy season is just as busy and intense as any other. When a skier breaks a leg, when hunters and hikers get lost, or campers go missing, it’s those volunteers that drop everything and go plunging into some of the most inhospitable or dangerous conditions Oregon has to offer. Though they may seem like angels at the time to those being pulled out of the wilderness, local Search and Rescue teams are composed of normal, if not highly trained, people.
It is these regular people, SAR team members, administrators, support staff, and other volunteers, that dedicate their time to keeping their communities safe year-round. However, Search and Rescue, like any other volunteer EMS unit, is not made up of limitless manpower. Each year as volunteers retire, move away, or otherwise become busy, teams shrink, and workload increases. As explained by Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora:
“So, our teams are able to stay, over the years, at a fairly constant level of staffing, but there’s always turnover. Using Union County as one example, in any given year, we usually will lose between three and five people just due to life circumstances.”
Usually, this turnover is replaced by recruitment, but not always. Other times, team members may be gone for the holidays or busy at work and need more time than usual to congregate. This is NOT to imply in any way that SAR teams, including Union County’s, are incapable of doing their jobs due to manpower constraints, but to show that the regular ebbs and flows of life can, and sometimes do, impact SAR. As further clarified by Vora:
“Right now, our staffing is adequate for us to be able to do what we need to do, but it’s something that we certainly are challenged with… So, maybe a low urgency call doesn’t require a large immediate response, that’s something that generally all of us can handle in-house. But, when we have one of those out of the ordinary larger incidents that require a lot of people right out the door, we frequently rely on each other for mutual aid because of our own staffing requirements.”
That said, Vora did describe that trends within the U.S. over the past 20 years seem to indicate a decline in volunteer culture. This is especially alarming for EMS teams, as well as organizations like the American Red Cross, that rely on volunteers to provide essential, and lifesaving, services. While again, local SAR teams within Eastern Oregon are maintaining sufficient numbers to function, there is concern over what the future of volunteer EMS may look like.
Equipment wise, Regional SAR units are, as estimated by Vora, in a similar position, I.E., perfectly equipped to do their jobs, but a bit more stretched for resources than the public may realize. As stated by Vora:
“It’s a constant struggle to be able to keep volunteer organizations well equipped, and I think that extends well beyond just volunteer Search and Rescue to volunteer fire departments and other volunteer organizations as well, just with limited budgets and people. Whereas we are always getting new people in too, there’s an ongoing training demand and an ongoing equipment demand.”
Union County SAR is even looking for a couple upgrades of its own. The first is the purchasing of a lighter weight rescue sled. While the current sled is perfectly serviceable, it’s, in Vora’s own words, “extremely heavy,” which limits what terrain it can be towed through. The second upgrade is the purchasing of a Garmin Inreach Device. The inreach device is effectively a satellite communicator that allows for real time location tracking and even limited texting during an emergency without relying on cellphone towers. Currently Union County SAR is testing one of the devices on a trial.
While the insight from Vora may give the impression that SAR teams aren’t being supported by their local administration, that is not the case. Regionally, county administration and sheriff’s offices (who directly oversee the SAR teams) are generous with the resources they have available. The issue is more that resources aren’t always available at the county level to fulfill every need. As explained by Vora:
“We see a tremendous amount of support. The county governments give us the funds that they are able to, but there’s always a competing need for those funds. So, at the administrative level, we have an incredible amount of support across Northeast Oregon by all of our sheriff’s offices and county governments. I really can’t say enough about how much that’s felt and appreciated, but, from a budgetary standpoint, there’s always going to be limitations and struggles.”
While funds may have to pass through administration, volunteers do not. As emphasized earlier, the volunteers that comprise SAR teams are just people, highly trained and equipped people, but people, nonetheless. While the idea of going through with training and having to participate in SAR missions may seem intimidating or seem like it should be reserved exclusively for professionals, Vora put things into perspective:
“I think one of the things that a lot of people think when they see people responding to emergencies, or when they read about it in the paper, they view those people who are responding as someone different than them and like, ‘oh, it’s other people that do that or respond to those calls, and I probably wouldn’t be able to. That’s not the ability that I have.’ But the people we have on our Search and Rescue team, on our volunteer fire departments, our local ambulance services, and other emergency volunteer organizations, are just members of the community that have taken it upon themselves to get the training and experience necessary to better their community. I would encourage anyone to explore where they have an interest, and I can guarantee you that they will be able to make themselves useful and to benefit their communities.”
It’s that last point that some may overlook. SAR consists of far more than just the boots on the ground rescuers. Administrators, mechanics, or even map makers all play an important role in Search and Rescue. Even if someone isn’t confident that they can take to the field, they can certainly find another way to help. And for those that genuinely cannot participate but would still like to help, donations are always happily accepted. Supplies, equipment, and money all go toward keeping SAR functional and prepared.
It should be reemphasized that despite their limitations, Eastern Oregon’s SAR teams are NOT in any way on the verge of collapse or disbandment. As Vora clarified, SAR teams are trained to make the most of limited resources and are more than capable of rising to the occasion, even when funds or manpower are tighter than normal. This isn’t to dismiss the very real concerns over equipment and volunteer availability, of course, but SAR are certainly better equipped than many when it comes to making the most of things.
Above all, however, it comes down to the volunteers to make SAR, and any local EMS team, as reliable as they are. These hard working, dedicated men and women put their time, and sometimes their lives, on the line, not for money, but for a love of their communities. Be they charging into the woods to find a stranded hiker or fixing up an ATV back at the garage, it’s those regular volunteers that keep communities safe. Likewise, county administrators and the local sheriff’s offices do what they can to ensure SAR can do what they need to do. As best put by Vora:
“We appreciate our volunteers and the time that they put into being able to keep us operational. When we have a call in the middle of the night on a weeknight and they use their annual vacation the next day to respond to that, those are sacrifices that they’re making for themselves and their family to help complete strangers. I really cannot say how much I appreciate our volunteers and also how much we as the operational leadership of these organizations appreciate the administrative support that we receive from our Sheriff and County Commissioners to allow us to do what we need to do with the very limited resources that we all have to share.”
To learn more about Union County SAR, and to apply, visit https://unioncountysheriff.us/programs/volunteer-opportunities/search-and-rescue/
