Colorado is shaking up the management and oversight of volunteer search and rescue crews across the state with a restructuring that upends more than five decades of protocol.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife on March 25 announced a new agreement that will shuffle oversight and coordination of state search and rescue programs over to the agency and the state’s homeland security division.
State officials promise nothing will change and the agreement is about improving efficiency and management of the complex web of partnerships that keep volunteers in the backcountry rescuing the lost and injured. So it’s not likely anything will shift in how the state’s 3,000-plus volunteer rescuers will speedily help people in trouble in the backcountry.
Still, the announcement caught those volunteers by surprise. Especially their organizing group, the Colorado Search and Rescue Association, which has had the role of coordinating statewide search and rescue operations and training for 53 years.
Several search and rescue volunteers across the state expressed dismay that teams were not consulted in the process of forging the new agreement. They all shared appreciation for their sheriffs. The relationship between Colorado sheriffs and their volunteer search teams is a unique bond in the public-private realm.
“I wonder if politics and money are eclipsing what is right for the teams and the people we serve right now,” said Janel Jordy, a member of Grand County Search and Rescue.
The new agreement — pitched by state officials as a simple plan to tidy up cooperative processes in a statewide emergency — was forged at the same time the Colorado Search and Rescue Association began pushing for increased dues from sheriffs. The nonprofit association was also floating legislation that would create more consistent funding for the association and search-and-rescue teams.
The new Interagency Agreement starts Aug. 1 and lasts through July 2031. It retains sheriff responsibility for search and rescue activities, but establishes CPW as the government agency responsible for supporting search and rescue activities and directs the agency to develop recommendations for improving a “sustainable coordination structure” for search and rescue in the state.
The new arrangement tasks CPW with creating training and credentialing standards for volunteers and coordinating search and rescue responses, both jobs that have been done for decades by the Colorado Search and Rescue Association.
The agreement outlines how the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act will limit liability from lawsuits involving any search and rescue operations or volunteer rescuers. The agreement sets up the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to “monitor, facilitate and promote” backcountry search and rescue programs and approve CPW’s volunteers.
Following recommendations in a 2022 study
In 2022, CPW directed a 111-page review of the state’s Backcountry Search and Rescue program as part of legislation crafted to better understand the challenges and successes of the state’s sheriff-led, volunteer-staffed rescue teams.
The report made myriad recommendations involving funding, psychological support of volunteers, immunity from lawsuits for those volunteers, training for rescuers, public education and statewide coordination.
In noting the “amazing complex web of partnerships” that support search and rescue efforts in the state, the report’s authors suggested a paid staffer at either the Colorado Search and Rescue Association or the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management should be created to support the statewide coordinators who work under direction of the association.
The report also recommended an agency or group should be identified to take over administrative support of search and rescue coordination.
The study concluded that continued cooperation and partnerships were key to building a more sustainable model for Colorado’s search and rescue teams. The authors noted that search and rescue is “an essential service” but is “well behind those other emergency services (like fire departments and ambulance services) in terms of financial and legal support.”
Colorado Search and Rescue members practice during the avalanche media event Thursday, March 11, 2021, on Vail Pass, CO. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)The study supported the standardization of memorandums of understanding — like the one between the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Colorado Search and Rescue Association — so partners can “ensure they are addressing all key roles and responsibilities together.”
The interagency agreement is an example of formalizing a previous, less formal arrangement.
The report suggested more paid staff support “as well as a leading agency / group” to gather stakeholders to guide improvements.
“Most, if not all of these duties should be fulfilled by the state in partnership with other stakeholders in the BSAR working group, including CSAR,” reads the report.
A “seemingly dynamic and complex” situation
On March 23, two days before the CPW announcement, Kevin Klein, the director of the the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, or DHSEM, sent a brief note to Jeff Sparhawk, the five-year executive director of the Colorado Search and Rescue Association, saying the 2017 agreement between the two organizations would end in 90 days. A revised note from Klein sent April 1 pushed the expiration date to Aug. 1 to coincide with the new interagency agreement.
“DHSEM thanks you and CSRA for your service to the people in the state of Colorado,” Klein wrote.
That 2017 agreement tasked the Colorado Search and Rescue Association with establishing a statewide network of volunteers. The association — working under county sheriffs — develops training and education programs for volunteers. It also certifies state coordinators who are on-call 24 hours a day in preparation for not just multi-agency search and rescues but also assistance in the event of a major disaster.
The Colorado Search and Rescue Association, which has one paid staff member, Sparhawk, was created in 1973 as a way to coordinate searches across multiple counties as well as organize, train and advocate for the state’s search and rescue teams.
Sparhawk declined to discuss the new agreement, saying in an email that the situation was “seemingly dynamic and complex.”
Colorado Search and Rescue members across different groups practice during the avalanche media event Thursday, March 11, 2021, on Vail Pass. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)In addition to assembling training programs, hosting events and coordinating multi-agency missions, he has persistently lobbied lawmakers to find ways to better support the roughly 50 Colorado backcountry search and rescue teams. That lobbying, according to emails obtained by The Colorado Sun, may have irked sheriffs who saw his legislative campaigns as a move to erode their control of search crews.
An overhaul of funding at CSAR
Last year, the Colorado Search and Rescue Association coordinated responses to 142 incidents that involved multiple agencies. The nonprofit offered training to 52 volunteers for search management and public information. The association has trained 22 backcountry search coordinators in its nine-month rescue coordination training program. Those volunteer statewide coordinators work round-the-clock in three-day shifts all year and manage aviation searches, search dog teams, satellite messaging systems and technical search teams across multiple counties.
The association’s annual search and rescue conference in Breckenridge last fall drew more than 200 people for training, presentations and discussions.
Last year the association reported $177,143 in revenue. About 42% of that came from individual donations, down from 54% in 2023 and 2024. Government funding accounted for 31% of the association’s revenue in 2023 and 2024 and that dropped to zero in 2025. CPW distributes state funds from the Backcountry Search and Rescue Fund and sales of the Keep Colorado Wild Pass through individual team requests for reimbursement for specific expenses and using a formula that considers the number of responses by the team.
Last year the state distributed more than $2.7 million to 44 search and rescue teams in 37 counties, according to a funding chart compiled by the Colorado Search and Rescue Association that Sparhawk sent to sheriffs earlier this year as part of his request for additional dues. That compares to almost $1.1 million to 39 teams in 35 counties in 2022, the year before Keep Colorado Wild Pass money started flowing to teams.
Since the Backcountry Search and Rescue Fund – supported by off-road vehicle registration fees and fees on hunting and fishing licenses – moved from the Department of Local Affairs to CPW in 2023, the agency has distributed $6,882,000 to backcountry search and rescue teams for equipment and training. (Shifting that fund from the Department of Local Affairs to CPW was one of the first recommendations in the 2022 Backcountry Search and Rescue Study.)
For 2026, the Colorado Search and Rescue Association budgeted $243,200 in revenue, with $100,000 of that coming from team membership dues.
The association is in the middle of overhauling its funding, with a focus on increasing dues paid by search and rescue teams. In February, Sparhawk began informing members of a new dues formula that asked SAR teams to pay the association 5% of its funding from the county sheriff and the team’s allocation from CPW and sales of the Keep Colorado Wild Pass, with a maximum of $5,000.
Sparhawk sent a new dues letter with suggested payments to every county sheriff in February, saying “unfortunately, due to being denied funding from CPW since 2023, CSAR has been forced to utilize a new dues formula.” Sparhawk noted that CPW has not directed funding from the Keep Colorado Wild Pass to the rescue association.
Jeff Sparhawk, president of the Colorado Search and Rescue Association speaks during the CSAR avalanche media event in March 2021, on Vail Pass. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)The letter, obtained by The Colorado Sun through an open records request, said the association was planning to pursue “a legislative solution” to search and rescue funding in 2026 or 2027 “to establish a sustainable, long-term funding structure.”
Chris Sorensen, the state emergency operations manager, forwarded Sparhawk’s dues letter to directors at the Colorado Office of Emergency Management and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, saying Sparhawk had sent the note seeking increased dues to sheriffs and “it hasn’t gone over well.”
A few days later Sparhawk apparently floated an idea for new legislation. The proposal made its way to Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons, who, in an email, told a long list of emergency services directors and Department of Natural Resources bosses that “this is full of misinformation and disinformation.” FitzSimons said “there was zero support from sheriffs” for the proposal.
The details of Sparhawk’s legislative proposal were not included in responses to The Sun’s open records request.
CPW spokeswoman Bridget O’Rourke said the agency and Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management were talking about a new agreement to improve support of county teams before the association began soliciting increased dues.
“A change to the backend” and “a function of efficiency”
O’Rourke said the agreement is “a change to the back end for how backcountry search and rescue incidents will be responded to.”
“CPW is not taking over the program. The Colorado Backcountry Search and Rescue program will remain unchanged,” O’Rourke said in an email. “CPW will not be taking a significantly greater role in the operations of search and rescue efforts across the state, that is the expertise of the SAR groups and under the authority of sheriffs.”
People will still call 911 if they have an emergency in the backcountry. The local sheriff’s office will organize the local rescue team. Most rescue calls are resolved this way. If the local team needs additional help — aircraft, dog teams, underwater teams or drones — that’s where a state coordinator steps in.
CPW intends to issue a solicitation for public bids to coordinate those expanded search and rescue missions and it’s expected that the Colorado Search and Rescue Association will submit a bid.
Micki Trost with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said “it’s unlikely that much is going to change” with the new agreement.
The Colorado Emergency Operations Center has 15 support functions in the event of a statewide emergency, like a wildfire, big blizzard or widespread flooding. The Colorado Search and Rescue Association served one of those functions. The group was rarely needed.
“It is likely that the Colorado Search and Rescue Association is going to end up working with CPW,” Trost said. “This is a management thing, not a functional thing.”
Search and rescue teams gather to respond to a plane crash near Telluride on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. (Courtesy, San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office)Amy Nichols, the executive director of County Sheriffs of Colorado, said her groups “did not initiate or request the development of the interagency agreement.”
“This concept was presented by our state partners,” she said.
O’Rourke, with CPW, said “this was a joint collaborative agreement between CPW, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and supported by sheriffs.” She called the agreement “a function of efficiency between state agencies to better support search and rescue operations and sheriffs across the state.”
“Business as usual”
Ben Wilson, the president of the Colorado Search and Rescue Association and a 26-year member of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, sent an email April 1 to members of the association saying all the association’s programs were going to continue “business as usual.”
In the email, obtained through an open records request, Wilson said “CSAR is in no way attempting to usurp the statutory responsibility of sheriffs for SAR in any of Colorado’s beautiful counties.”
Noting the new interagency agreement, Wilson told search and rescue volunteers that “new insight is developing daily” and the association was cooperating with other agencies “to ensure we get to continue to serve you.”
A March 24 letter from the County Sheriffs of Colorado director Nichols sent to search and rescue volunteers said the agreement would “strengthen the stability” of funding for SAR teams. The agreement is about accountability and transparency in statewide SAR coordination management, Nichols wrote.
“We recognize that change can create uncertainty. Our goal is to reduce that uncertainty by ensuring a coordination system that is dependable, transparent, and centered on public safety,” she wrote. “Our commitment is to you, to ensure that when you are called out, you have the support, resources, and coordination necessary to do your job safely and effectively.”
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