After more than a month-long search for Grant Gardner, the 38-year-old hiker from Minnesota was found dead in Wyoming’s Cloud Peak Wilderness last August. While many followed the search, few probably thought about who was paying for the extended effort by Big Horn County Search and Rescue.

The bill for the search reached over $100,000, and that didn’t cover flights and fuel, which were donated by pilots for the recovery.

“If they would have been charged for all of the flight hours of helicopters that they had, it would have been over $1 million for that one call,” said Park County Search and Rescue coordinator Bill Brown. “You can’t not go rescue someone. You can’t not go recover the body, right?”

At the same time, the services of all-volunteer search and rescue crews, who answer calls 24/7/365, are free of charge. There were more than 350 calls for the services of search and rescue across the state last year. That number has been growing since 2020, when folks realized (thanks in part to the global pandemic) how healthy it is to enjoy the great outdoors.

Teton County Search and Rescue typically receives the most calls per year, with Park County typically in the top three most calls with about 30 to 40 rescue attempts per year, Brown said. That means the minimum volunteers are called on about once every 12 days per year on average.

“Their time is their most valuable possession, and they give it up willingly. We’re very lucky,” he said.

During the last weekend of February, Park County Search and Rescue had a difficult snowmobile crash in the Beartooth Mountains on Saturday afternoon and then, at about 11:30 p.m. the same night until 2 a.m. Sunday morning, they were out on another call for the Cody Police Department.

“It’s often very inconvenient at times,” Brown said, pointing to the dedication of the volunteers and the businesses that are generous enough to allow their employees to run to the aid of those lost or injured in the county’s adventure-packed landscape.

The state partially funds Wyoming Search and Rescue to the tune of $691,000 per biennium, which in turn reimburses county search and rescue groups for their training and rescue missions. Once the mission turns to a known recovery of a body, the funding from the state organization stops and the county is responsible for the cost of the mission.

Legislative effort

During the legislative session, two amendments were proposed to further fund Wyoming Search and Rescue, one for an additional $200,000 and the other for $400,000. But a number of fiscal conservatives in the House and Senate suggested search and rescue had enough money in the bank to make it without the extra funds.

State Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, voted against the Senate’s amendment of $400,000. 

“I appreciate all the search and rescue volunteers and thank them for their time and service. I know they provide a critical role for all of us when we have had an accident or are lost. Thank you search and rescue!” Laursen said in an interview with the Tribune. However, he said he’s keeping an eye on the state’s bottom line.

“In the past few biennium the expenditures from this fund has been around $500,000 and the balance in the fund has held steady around $1.8 million,” Laursen said.

Gov. Mark Gordon had the same thought when he declined to endorse the funding request in his draft budget.

“The governor is conservative. He’s very careful with everyone’s budget and he believes that the funds they already have — I think it’s $1.8 million — is sufficient,” said Amy Edmonds, a spokesperson for the governor. “And of course, we have a supplemental budget process that we could always come back to if we need to.”

The amount in their reserves means they aren’t out of funding at this point, but a series of expensive rescues could leave the organization scrambling, according to Brown.

“[Wyoming Search and Rescue] are just being fiscally responsible and to make sure that they can afford their missions,” Brown said of the money set aside in the state search and rescue account.

Funding has been complicated in the past few years due to private donations decreasing each year starting in 2020 by about $120,000.

Local funding

Dr. Aaron Billin is a member of Park County Search and Rescue as well as the president of the Park County Search and Rescue Foundation. He said additional funding from the state could be very helpful, especially for counties without dedicated local supporters.

“I don’t see [the lack of increased funding from the Legislature] changing what we’re doing because we have things in place to support the search and rescue team locally,” Billin said in an interview with the Tribune.

Not only is the local chapter doing well, thanks in large part to private donations to the foundation, it has been able to make strategic purchases of thermal imaging and communication systems. The purchases have made the team’s jobs easier and have saved time for crews during rescues.

At the same time, it’s not cheap to be a volunteer for the organization, Brown said. While SAR supports the volunteers with most needed equipment, individuals are still responsible for personal equipment, like safety harnesses for climbing, swift water and other highly dangerous situations.

“You could have $2,000 worth of your own money wrapped into this pretty easily,” Brown said. “And that’s one of the frustrating things, because that’s a cost that the commissioners and legislators never see.”

They also never see those thousands of hours of training and checking equipment for missions. Last year the team spent 2,410 man-hours training.

“They don’t see a cost for that. It’s kind of taken for granted,” Brown said.

Park County Search and Rescue members attend a classroom training session once per week and backcountry field training several times a year. By the end of February, the organization has already recorded more than 340 man-hours of training.

Better luck next year?

Edmonds pointed out that if the state search and rescue were to run low on funding, the Legislature could add funding to their coffers. There’s always the opportunity for the governor to fight for funding during next year’s supplemental budget debates.

“If there was some kind of serious or significant, natural disaster that involved a tremendous amount of search and rescue, there are certainly avenues that any governor can take [to fund the organization],” Edmonds said.

Brown said the organization hopes to find new donors to help reverse the downturn in private donations, but that if county and state search and rescue organizations can’t afford to pay for a mission, the bills will fall in the respective county’s hands.

“The irony of this is, if legislators don’t want to fund it, they’re going to end up paying for it anyway,” he said.