NPS Establishes National SAR Academy

The National Park Service has founded a National Search and Rescue Academy (NSARA) to provide comprehensive, standardized Servicewide training in basic search and rescue competencies.

NSARA will be based in Northern Arizona in order to take advantage of the challenging rescue environments available throughout the region. The first training offering, which will be a six-week-long course in California, will be this fall (see the Friday training calendar for particulars).

NSARA will offer a highly structured learning environment. Participants will have to be physically fit and will begin each training day with fitness training and an intensive safety briefing. Training will occur in the classroom setting as well as in various physically challenging technical outdoor environments. Personal preparedness, rescuer safety, and operational leadership principles will be emphasized throughout.

NSARA will provide participants with a venue to efficiently attain field rescuer skills in a single condensed format that would typically require numerous years to obtain, including essential field rescue skills in ground search operations, the incident command system, swiftwater rescue, technical rope rescue, search management, and basic aviation safety.

NSARA will directly lead to improved workplace safety for employees and enhanced SAR response capability for the agency. National Park Service visitors and employees will both directly benefit from this program.





Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com