The article seems a bit alarmist, although not completely over the top. It also seems to discount the immense contribution made by the military.

I was once one of those "overwhelmed" volunteers,spending hard earned dough on rescue gear - the very same items I used for recreation as well, and noted dutifully on my tax return.

I worked from Tucson, AZ, a large urban area with Davis-Monathan AFB adjacent, equipped with lots of hoist equipped helicopters and eager Vietnam era pilots eager for a diversion from their usual milk runs. When needed, the incurred costs were charged to "training." The arrangement worked well for all concerned.

On one major search effort, i was personally communicating with a group in Illinois, arranging for some kind of highly classified heat sensing gadget to overfly our search area. It did not at the time seem to be all that extraordinary request...

We operated not just within our county, but well beyond, including adjacent, more rural areas. Many of those communities now have their own rescue groups, supported and encouraged by our group. Things seem to be working decently.

One thing not mentioned in the article is that a certain threshold of rescue incidents is necessary for any SAR arrangement to work decently. Inactivity can be just as debilitating as too much activity.

I am sure improvements can be made, but I don't thin we are necessarily on the verge of a "crisis."