Yolo County Search and Rescue Team

The Yolo County Search and Rescue Team (YoloSAR) provides assistance to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office and the California Office of Emergency Services outside of Yolo County.  The team is on-call 24 hours a day and is ready for both urban and wilderness searches. 

The team are volunteers who train monthly in various tactics and methods of search, rescue, human tracking, land navigation, rope rescue, incident command system, search management, first aid, survival, and support functions. Team members often train externally and receive professional certifications in skills that include wilderness medicine, high-angle rope rescue, and swift water rescue.  Team members fund their own personal equipment, uniforms, and external training, which costs hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Team equipment includes first aid kits, stretchers, rope rescue gear, a command trailer, and computer and communications gear.  The team strives to be more inclusive to lower-income community members and help fund personal equipment, additional team equipment, uniforms, and training costs for members.  

In 2023, YoloSAR assisted in 7 search and rescue missions for a total of 65-personnel days and an estimated 420 cumulative hours in Yolo, Solano, and Calaveras Counties. YoloSAR team members and applicants put in over 4000 volunteer hours cumulatively in training, service, and missions.  There are approximately 25 active members and 15 trainees.