"Back in my era, SARA was one team. What is this "five teams" you refer to? The population of Tucson was well below a million then, as well.

There is another factor involved here, as well - inactivity. If your services are not used, what is the point? I would say that about 40-50 callouts a year is necessary to keep the group exercised and poised for service.

Phrases like "volunteer based, patchwork" and contrasts with " professional, full time teams" does not put volunteerism in the best light. I would say the article degrades volunteerism and volunteers, implying that they are a less than satisfactory solution. That is not to say the situation could not be improved

The articles also states that the NPS handles SAR in the parks. They do, mostly by calling on those pesky volunteers. This was certainly the case in southern Arizona where we operated in Organ Pipe Cactus, Saguaro, and most notably in Chiricahua - the search for Paul Fugate, the Park Naturalist who went out to check thee nature trail in January, 1980, and hasn't been seen since. I personally spent more than two weeks on that operation. As a career NPS employee, during one week I was formally assigned to Chiricahua, working totally within the SARA framework. There were sporadic, targeted operations after that. The case is still unresolved. For the last fifteen years of my career, I served at Channel islands national Park, where we depended upon the volunteer team in Santa Barbara where any technical skills was required. We did handle many ops on our own, but NPS budgets have not thrived recently, staffing has decreased, and the NPS is increasingly dependent on (ahem!) volunteers for all kinds of work.

There are parks like Yosemite, and Grand Canyon, with heavy visitation that do indeed have functional teams, but they all are willing to include volunteers with special insights and skills.

For all the alarms that this article raises, there is a notable lack of discussion about possible solutions; certainly the current situation can be improved in many respects. We should focus on possible solutions,like improved outdoor education