Welcome to MSAR

Maryland Search and Rescue (MSAR) is a professional volunteer wilderness search and rescue organization established to provide assistance to those who become lost or injured in the outdoors. Along with other member organizations of the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference (ASRC), MSAR responds to emergencies anywhere in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia to conduct searches for missing persons or aircraft, and to carry out rescue operations in wilderness areas that require specialized equipment and techniques.

Based in Highland, Maryland, MSAR has over 100 members with expertise in wilderness medicine, land navigation, search and tracking techniques, land/air evacuation methods, and emergency incident management. Our teams are dispatched to 20-30 search emergencies annually, and operate in conjunction with state and local authorities as well as other ASRC groups.

All of the ASRC members are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This can cause a conflict with school/work schedules. Members who have informed and discussed M/SAR with teachers and school administrators, ahead of time, have generally had success having searches classified as excused absences. Remember that searches are never mandatory, so searches do not need to get in the way of education.

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