Focus is on wilderness incidents. This course is designed for those who have the responsibility to plan and prepare for search operations in any emergency environment, be it wilderness, rural, or urban. This is not a 'hands-on' skills course; it is management oriented. Participants will learn how to plan for, organize and manage a search effort for missing persons using incident management (command) techniques. Emphasis is on state-of-the-art methods, e.g. probability theory, lost person behavior studies, clue awareness, search detection probabilities and research, use of computers as a planning tool, hasty search techniques, and more! 

Participants will also learn about various types of rescue environments and the special difficulties of each. The emphasis is on the resources needed to do the job right. The expected outcome is that students be able to properly manage search and rescue (emergency) operations through the work of others, (using the right resources). Small group discussion and tabletop map exercises are used throughout this course.

Students receive a certificate of completion from PA Department of Natural Resources (DCNR) after successful completion of this course.

• Overview of the national search and rescue (SAR) picture
• SAR manager: job and responsibilities
• Philosophy and concepts of effective SAR management
• An example mission; SAR vulnerability assessment
• SAR resources; Developing a SAR plan
• Planning data/searching data
• First notice; Organization, incident management (command)
• The search planning function
• Investigation, Interviewing
• Determining the search urgency
• Lost subject behavior
• Theory of search probabilities
• Establishing the search area
• Confinement
• Search area segmentation
• Assigning probabilities of area
• Clue orientation
• Applying SAR resources
• Callout procedures
• Search tactics, probability of detection
• Use of computer technology
• Briefing; Debriefing
• Documentation
• Managing search base operations
• Managing external influences
• Rescue and recovery concepts
• Suspending the mission
• Demobilization; Post mission
• Psychological and stress problems in SAR management
• Legal issues
• SAR statistics
• Preventive SAR education.