A county sheriff in southern Washington is considering fining visitors who require search and rescue—specifically if those visitors are unprepared for their backcountry trips.
In a June 5 Facebook post, the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office reported that “despite continued preparedness messaging and warnings of the dangers” of recreating outside, the county had seen a 400 percent increase in SAR incidents in May 2025 compared to numbers from last year.
Skamania County, which spans roughly 1,600 square miles north of the Columbia River Gorge, is home of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, as well as other popular outdoor destinations in the Cascade Range.
County Sheriff Summer Scheyer said that, in a growing pattern, the vast majority of individuals who require rescue are non-residents and are behaving “in a negligent or reckless way.” The press release detailed ten search and rescue incidents from the May. In one, a woman “reported leg cramps” while hiking, and was unable to return to the trailhead, which resulted in a four-hour extraction by volunteer rescuers. In another, a man called for aid after his vehicle was stuck in the snow on a Forest Service road, and in another, a woman called for aid after experiencing a “high heart rate while bicycling.”
Other incidents included ankle and knee injuries, and two men on separate occasions who fell down steep slopes near the Wind River. Most of these required multi-hour rescues, some extremely technical in nature. Washington state law requires sheriffs to respond to all search and rescue calls, regardless of severity.
Scheyer said the exponential increase in such incidents, despite “extraordinary efforts” made in the last year to educate hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts, has led to a need to “find a creative way” to deter this behavior, while also recouping the costs of these operations, which are levied on county taxpayers despite being primarily perpetrated by tourists.
While some SAR missions are a matter of gathering a few volunteers and hiking a couple of miles down a trail, others, particularly those involving high angles or elevations, aquatic environments, or remote destinations, can be extremely expensive. This is particularly true when aerial reconnaissance or extraction is required. The operating cost of a helicopter, including fuel, maintenance, and crew, ranges from $1,200 to over $3,000 per hour.
In most cases, search and rescue services in the United States are provided free of charge, and federal agencies like the National Park Service and Coast Guard do not charge for SAR operations. But laws vary widely at the state and county level, and Skamania County isn’t the first to raise the idea of charging outdoor adventurers for their rescue. Several states, including New Hampshire, Idaho, Utah, Maine, and Oregon, have enacted legislation that gives officials the authority to seek reimbursement from rescued individuals, although typically only in cases involving severe negligence or recklessness.
Opinions vary as to whether the most effective method is punitive—as Skamania County is proposing—or a voluntary, preventative fee. Utah, for example, sells Search and Rescue Assistance Cards. Available as a one-time purchase, $25 for an individual for one year, these cards eliminate an individual’s liability to repay associated costs if rescued, although cardholders may still be billed if found to have engaged in “highly unreasonable conduct.” New Hampshire has a similar program, the “Hike Safe” card, as does Colorado, the CORSAR, Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue, card.
Some groups, such as the National Search and Rescue Association (NASAR) and the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), oppose the idea of charging individuals for a rescue at all, arguing that this can incentivize individuals to delay calling for help, which can in turn increase financial costs and risk, both for the victims and rescuers. In lieu of charging fees, the MRA promotes “training and education” as the solution. “No one should ever be made to feel they must delay in notifying the proper authorities of a search or rescue incident out of fear of possible charges,” the group’s website states.
Even in states, like Maine, where charging for SAR efforts is allowed by law, some officials are reluctant, saying it could be a deterrent. “We want people to call, because the longer they don’t call, especially if they’re lost, the farther, more trouble they could be getting into,” Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service told local news station WGME in 2019. The Colorado Search and Rescue Association holds a similar opinion, and also maintains that charging for search and rescue services, “especially in a punitive context,” could make the outdoors less welcoming, hindering the state’s significant outdoor tourism industry.
Whether Skamania County will adopt a punitive measure remains to be seen. “I need to find a creative way to deter the current behavior we are witnessing, while attempting to recoup the financial burden placed on our county for an unfunded state mandate,” said Sheriff Scheyer. “This ordinance is still in the planning phase, but I believe it would be an added deterrent for those who take exceptional risks and expect the services we are required to provide as a result of their own actions.”
