The Wallowa County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue unit is a volunteer organization that takes the job of responding to search and rescue calls throughout the year very seriously.

The current roster lists 13 women and 19 men in active status, with others on leaves of absence. During a typical year the roster grows and ebbs as new members join and others need to bow out or go off to do other things.

Search and rescue members come from all walks of life: ranchers, loggers, office professionals, private business, government workers, retired and second career folks, teachers and pastors.

“These dedicated non-paid, professionals have banded together to give of whatever they have to make a difference,” Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen said. “Last fall for example, we successfully located a missing hunter in the Wenaha Unit just before a major snow storm struck. Without a doubt the hunter’s life was saved as a direct result of the search and rescue team effort.”

Search and rescue members fill vital roles in support of the sheriff’s search and rescue responsibilities including staffing radio control sites, carrying out organizational and administrative duties, organizing food for searches, and providing assistance whenever and wherever needed.

The Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office can call on the Search and Rescue Unit for trained teams to respond to swift water or over-snow incidents. The search and rescue unit has also supported years of member efforts to provide a trained search dog team, which has become a reality this year.

The Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office is also looking into hosting a Law Enforcement/Search and Rescue Explorer Post for young men and women ages 14-21. This type of Explorer Post could help provide additional personnel for searches, as well as sharing career choices and character development with the participants.

The Wallowa County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit maintains search and rescue equipment such as snowmobiles and an over-snow rescue sled, four ATVs, a trailer for hauling rope rescue gear, inflatable kayaks and rafts for swift water incidents, a six-passenger pickup and other support equipment. The Sheriff’s Office maintains contact with other organizations for the use of aircraft or helicopters when required for a rescue or search mission.

Training is an ongoing task for the volunteer groups, with at least 20 hours a year required in different subjects. This past year classroom and/or field training topics have included map and compass reading, setting up equipment, helicopter safety and use, first aid, tracking practice and understanding search methodology.

The number of calls each year, not surprisingly ,seems to peak during the hunting seasons, and some years are busier than others. A record 32 missions were posted in 2002, with only 22 search and rescue missions necessary in 2003.

“While we don’t have exact data on the number of search and rescue calls in the 1960s and 70s, we do know that they seemed to average between 6-10 per year,” said Matthew Marmor, Wallowa County’s Search and Rescue Coordinator.

“In the 80s the average went up to something like 18 search and rescue missions per year. And in the 90s we averaged around 23 missions per year, with 2002 being the highest single year at 32 missions.”

In Wallowa County, to report a missing person or to contact the search and rescue coordinator, please call the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office at 541-426-3131.

Once a missing person call is received search and rescue personnel need to be able to re-contact you. If you call in by cell phone from a ridge top please remain within range of the cell service so rescuers can call to set up a location to meet you.

In most cases you, as the person reporting the incident, know who is missing, where they were last seen, what their plan was and what has been done to find them. This information is important to search and rescue personnel and may help them in determining where to send their resources.

Early notification when someone is overdue and potentially lost or injured alerts the search and rescue organization to a potential emergency situation, and allows a head start on putting together the personnel and equipment it might need to respond appropriately to the situation.

If the person is located and doesn’t need search and rescue assistance please call search and rescue at 541-426-3131 right away, so the volunteers can return to their jobs and families.

“I can not tell you how many times we have received a call for help, organized and sent out personnel, and then received a call back letting us know everything was ok. We all understand these circumstances and would rather know early on that we might be needed, than have someone call us as a last resort, ” Marmor said.

Hunters should help S&R by following basic rules

There are two very important things hunters can do to aid Wallowa County’s Search and Rescue Unit in potential search efforts:

Don’t hesitate to notify the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office at 541-426-3131 if someone in your hunting party is overdue or lost.

Leave word with a responsible party where you are going to be hunting and when you expect to be back.

If you should happen to call for search and rescue help, it is important that you remain where search and rescue members can call you back or make contact with you for additional information.

When hunting in Northeast Oregon it is important that hunters let someone know specifically where they will be; the more specific the location the better.

“The lower Imnaha” is better than “the Imnaha,” and a campsite off an exact road is even better. Not only will this be important to help locate someone if they are reported overdue, but also in case of attempting to deliver an emergency message from home.

Stop by the Sheriff’s Office (in the courthouse in downtown Enterprise) to leave word where they will be, or hunters can call the number listed above.

Satellite phones are available for rent to hunters at KWVR radio station at 220 Main St. in Enterprise; call 426-4577 for more information.