About Us

The BC Search and Rescue Association (BCSARA) advocates on behalf of the 78 GSAR groups and the more than 3,000 hard working professional volunteers, and trained, members-in-training, and resources volunteers who donate hundreds of hours of training in order to search for and rescue hundreds of subjects each and every year.

Each year search and rescue groups in BC respond to more than 1750 incidents involving over 1,700 lost or injured persons. Our 3,400 unpaid professional volunteers (fully trained members, members-in-training and resource members), located throughout BC communities, are available day or night.

Together these men and women donate more than 441,000 hours of their time on callouts annually, and historically an astounding 95% subjects are found or rescued within the first 24 hours of a volunteer GSAR group being activated.

This volunteer service offers tremendous value for citizens and visitors alike. The cost to replace this volunteer service in direct salary dollars alone would exceed $20,000,000 annually (excluding infrastructure and capital costs, which are estimated at more than 50 million dollars.) BCSARA is proud of its role in making this service better.