About Us

The Bear Valley SAR Team's mission is to provide professional, skilled search and rescue assistance to the citizens of the Bear Valley community, visitors who recreate locally, and mutual aid to other areas as requested. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all of our members are volunteers. Each member is responsible for acquiring and maintaining their personal equipment used for SAR trainings and missions. Our members train and participate on teams with expertise in Mountain/Wilderness Rescue, Rope Rescue, Alpine Rescue, Off Highway Vehicles, Snowmobiles, and Fire Evacuation.

Administered by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, the Bear Valley Search & Rescue Team provides search and rescue services in the Big Bear Valley, throughout San Bernardino County, and mutual aid searches in surrounding counties such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Inyo, and Kern counties. The team is on-call 24 hours a day and is ready for both urban and wilderness searches. Response is based on availability of the members at the time of call out.

The team receives training 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.