Bill hopes to reduce delay for search and rescue

When an outdoor adventurer stumbles into trouble or is lost in one of New Mexico’s vast wilderness areas, getting aid there quickly is paramount to a successful rescue.

“It’s a matter of life and death, and also disability,” said Tom Prettyman, president of Cibola Search and Rescue, which is a part of the greater New Mexico Search and Rescue (NMSAR) team. “The people on my team who are medically trained say that ‘time is tissue.’ What they mean by that is the longer you have somebody out in the wilderness ... the more they will suffer consequences from an injury. It’s important to have all our first responders getting out there as quickly as possible.”

But too often vital time is wasted as dispatchers around the state frequently call out the local first responders, and on many occasions NMSAR is not notified of a situation until hours or even days later, said Bob Rodgers, NMSAR resource officer. NMSAR, by state statute, is a volunteer organization that works under the auspices of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.

“For the majority of the cases, there is a high sense of urgency,” he said. “We need a quick response for whatever is needed.”

Correcting this time delay is at the heart of legislation sponsored by state Sens. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, and Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi. The legislation, Senate Bill 353, would amend the state Search and Rescue Act “to establish standardized response protocols for federal, state, and local agencies when New Mexico Search and Rescue is required in emergencies,” according to a legislative synopsis.

“It just kind of made sense that local (dispatchers) responders would be trained to make that call in a timely way rather than hours later,” Steinborn said.

The proposal passed the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee unanimously last week and is now waiting to be heard in the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.

The issue is one NMSAR has been struggling with for some time, Rodgers said, as there is often a lack of knowledge of just how the organization differs from local first responders like fire, police and medical personnel. The bill would help create greater cooperation among the various local and state responders, as well, he said.

There are nearly 1,000 volunteers in 36 organizations around the state, he said. The volunteers provide all their own gear, transportation and undergo many hours of specific training annually.

Once a new volunteer learns the basics, they often delve into specialty training areas such as search theory, land navigation, emergency medical services and wilderness first aid, how to handle helicopter operations, technical search and rescue — involving ropes and riggings, litter hauling — resource management, drone surveillance, communications and canine tracking to name just a few, Rodgers said.

The NMSAR network involves a vast array of resources.

“There is not an agency in the state of New Mexico that can put 40 people on the mountain and leave them for 72 hours, and my people are trained to do that,” Rodgers said. “I have access to a rather large group of resources. National Guard, (Department of Defense) helicopters, Civil Air Patrol, which is a branch of the Air Force. I am not limited to just local agencies and search-and-rescue responders. I can call in whatever I need.”

In 2023, NMSAR responded to 108 missions. Of those, seven resulted in a fatality, he said

But it’s hard to determine if a quicker response would have made a difference in those instances, he said.

“A lot of situations, call outs, people get in above their heads,” Rodgers said. “People are just not capable of handling situations at the time. The Sandia Mountains, most of the time, people get stranded on the La Luz Trail. It’s snow conditions, or they can get off trail and the terrain is difficult. On the back side, we see people are not necessarily experienced and just can’t handle the environment going on.”

Evan Ashcraft has been one of those highly trained volunteers since retiring from Sandia National Laboratories in 2019.

“We do a minimum of two trainings every six months and one mission every six months,” he said. “The folks who are really active do many multiples of that. It wouldn’t be uncommon to do 10 to 12 trainings a year, and the same with missions. The team has been running 35 missions a year. And we do have folks that go to the vast majority of those missions.”

It requires a tremendous commitment, Ashcraft said.

“It’s a huge challenge for people who are working,” he said. “Missions can and do happen 24 hours a day. People make a huge sacrifice to be a part of this; not just time but financially, as well.”

So why go through all of this for a volunteer gig?

“It just comes down to helping people in distress,” Ashcraft said. “In general, we don’t know the people we’re searching for or evacuating, but it’s not hard to imagine that it could be my friends or my family. And you know they have friends and family who would want that help for them.”