Union County Search & Rescue

Last week and this past weekend, members of our team trained alongside Umatilla County Search and Rescue and Wallowa County Search and Rescue team members, completing an Oregon Rescue Rope Rescue Technician course near La Grande. This was an incredible training for our team, not only for the technical rescue skills gained and practiced, but also the partnerships, relationships, and trust built between neighboring SAR teams who frequently provide mutual aid to each other.

We give our sincere thanks to Umatilla County SAR who took the lead on organizing the course, our volunteers who committed several days of their time to this very intensive training, and to our donors who make it possible for us to provide such valuable training opportunities to our team. Thank you!

_____________________________
Union County Sheriff's Office
Oregon Department of Emergency Management
Oregon State Sheriffs' Association

Today Union and Wallowa counties’ water rescue teams conducted a joint water rescue training mission with the Oregon National Guard on the Minam River. The National Guard flew our combined water rescue teams, boats, and equipment in to Red’s Horse Ranch, and the teams then worked their way the approximately 24 miles down the Minam River to the Minam State Park.

The upper Minam is a high risk section of river full of large rocks and dangerous strainer hazards. Recreation on and near the river has resulted in increasing calls for water-related emergencies in recent years, prompting both water rescue teams to identify the area as a priority for training. The combined training mission allowed us to not only strengthen the already strong relationship between all of the agencies involved, but also become familiar with new hazards in the river and sharpen individual and team boating skills in a fast moving and rocky river environment.

__________
Union County Sheriff's Office
Oregon Department of Emergency Management
Oregon State Sheriffs' Association
Wallowa County Search and Rescue
City of La Grande Fire Department

242 HOURS SPENT LOOKING FOR MUSHROOM PICKERS SO FAR THIS WEEK

Between May 3rd and 8th, Union County SAR team members have logged approximately 242 hours searching for lost mushroom pickers on three separate incidents. That is an average of over 40 search hours PER DAY. Two searches were days apart and completely unrelated, but in nearly the exact same area. The four individuals lost across all three instances were all local to and familiar with the areas they sarted out in.

Please let these statistics impart the importance of personal preparedness regardless of your familiarity and comfort with the area you are recreating in. Be prepared with the 10 survival essentials even if you're out for a short outing, carry your phone with you, and avoid going out alone. A GPS or GPS app for your phone that works offline is an excellent tool to add a degree of safety to your outings this spring, as mushroom picking can be extremely disorienting from wandering and looking at the ground vs the horizon.

Union County Sheriff's Office
Oregon State Sheriffs' Association
Oregon Department of Emergency Management

Union County SAR has been working alongside SAR teams from across eastern Oregon assisting our neighbors at Umatilla County Search and Rescue with an ongoing search incident that they are managing. Weekday operations are always challenging for volunteers' schedules, especially following a separate search we had for a lost mushroom picker west of Elgin Sunday evening through Monday morning, so we are incredibly appreciative of the 13 generous and dedicated team members who we've been able to deploy so far to assist.

This weekend our water rescue team took advantage of increased streamflows to do some training and kayak-handling practice on the Grande Ronde River upstream of La Grande. This stretch of river is popular for recreation, so our team takes advantage of opportunities like this to gain familiarity with the river and in-stream hazards at different water levels. With the passage of time and high flows, obstacles like trees move in and down the river, so regular trips allow us to be aware of areas where someone, or one of us, might get into trouble.

La Grande Amazon site manager, Mark Warner, on behalf of Amazon, donated approximately $3,000 worth of gear to Union County Search & Rescue today. This equipment will substantially facilitate our SAR team's ability to add two additional members to our water rescue team. The donated items included two rescue dry suits, rescue helmets, and a rescue personal floatation device.