CO BC Peeps: get your Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue Card
... formerly the Hiker's Certificate.
Seach and rescue is grossly underfunded in this State. If you don't have your hunter safety or fishing licence, get one of these. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not SAR insurance. I hope to never need them, but it would be nice to think you helped equip something other than a body recovery unit.
Quote:
Twenty-five cents of the price of the card and each Colorado fishing and hunting license and boat, snowmobile and off-road vehicle registration goes into the Colorado SAR fund.
The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue Card is not "search and rescue insurance." "Insurance" implies a bill for services will be sent. Colorado search and rescue teams do not charge for service.
What are the real costs of search and rescue?
There is normally no great cost to an individual search or rescue mission. The cost is not to respond and carry out the mission, it is in preparing for one and standing by: training, equipment, insurance, vehicles, telephone, maintenance, etc.
How does this fund work?
The Colorado SAR Fund is a statewide "reserve pool" of money that can reimburse a county sheriff and its search and rescue agency for expenses that might be incurred in search and rescue missions: damaged or destroyed SAR team and personal equipment, helicopter time, food for searchers, fuel and the like. Search and rescue teams are the usual recipients of SAR Fund money. Just as importantly, it provides tens of thousands of dollars in grants for training and equipment to Colorado's search and rescue teams.
What good is a hiker's certificate?
It protects your safety by ensuring, through grants, that a trained and equipped search and rescue team exists and is standing by, should you need it. It gives each county sheriff a pool of reimbursement money if an exceptionally large or long mission occurs.
It does not "insure" outdoor enthusiasts against a bill for an Army helicopter, rescue operations or a multiple day search for a lost family member. There is no bill for search and rescue team's services in Colorado.
It is one part of the financial safety net that protects rescuers and sheriffs, by ensuring a sheriff's department can afford occasional expensive mission costs; and by equipping and training Colorado's SAR volunteers.
Exactly what expenses does the certificate cover?
The fund specifically can not cover medical expenses such as an ambulance, or medical helicopter. The local county sheriff would be charged for helicopter operations in a search or rescue -- not the patient (except the medical helicopter costs). This is where the SAR fund comes in: the sheriff could apply for reimbursement of such bills.
