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Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR)
Volunteer requirements

Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR) is often looking for a volunteer or two for wilderness operations conducted by either its Short-Range Special Operations Group (SRSOG) or Long-Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG).

• SRSOG operations generally involve focused, multiday, line or lane searches in moderately-challenging wilderness, with volunteers carrying a 8/24-hour rucksack load while underway, and working out of a SAR basecamp, one they've established in a road-accessible area or by backpacking their kit into a remote area.
• LRSOG operations generally involve arduous, long-range, freestyle recon as well as difficult searches of very-challenging swamps, marshes, semi-mountainous terrain, and waterways, as well as winter searches involving deep snow and deep cold. LRSOG is the first MibSAR crew to respond on a new case, usually conducting a heavy operation (one involving rucks with full, multi-day loads), with volunteers working long days, and bivouacking in place when the sun sets.

Led by Michael Neiger of Marquette, Michigan, MibSAR is a non-motorized, special operations group (SOG) of hard-core, dyed-in-the-wool bushmen and bushwomen who thrive in remote, inhospitable wilderness.

Certified by the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), they're at their best with map-and-compass in-hand, living out of a rucksack, panier, sledge, or canoe for days—sometimes weeks—at a time.

Skilled, wilderness survivalists by nature, these foul-weather-ready, fully-equipped, experienced backpackers spend dozens of nights in the bush of Canada and Michigan each year, including the dead of winter, sleeping in bivouac sacks, often under tarps. In addition to being very physically fit, and proficient swimmers, they're skilled land navigators.

Since they frequently work the bush fully equipped and provisioned for long-range operations—without support or resupply for up to 10 days at times—they're considered a heavy team by conventional SAR standards.

Integrity and character

Since MibSAR's operations regularly involve work with grieving family members, over-worked law enforcement investigators, witnesses, informants, potential suspects, government officials, members of the media, private property owners, personal property, public property, state artifacts, sensitive information, human remains, and forensic evidence—which in the past has been analyzed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Crime Laboratory, Michigan State Police Forensic Crime Laboratory sytem, and some of the Midwest's tops anthropologists—volunteers must have spotless criminal histories, be extremely honest, and very discrete.

Law-enforcement friendly

MibSAR's hand-in-hand work with local, county, tribal, state, and federal law enforcement officers and investigators means all volunteers must be law enforcement friendly.

Wilderness backpacking experience

To participate in MibSAR's wilderness operations, volunteers must be fully-equipped backpackers with lots of experience hiking and bivouacking off-trail, in the heat of the summer as well as the dead of the winter.

Physical fitness

Most of MibSAR's wilderness operations are strenuous and prolonged, so volunteers must be very physically fit, both aerobically and muscularly.

They must be fit enough to hump a heavy rucksack hour after hour, day after day under difficult environmental conditions such as extreme heat or cold, high winds, steep terrain, tangled bush, unstable or slippery ground, deep snow, etc., without undue fatigue, without becoming a hazard to themselves or others, and with enough reserve to deal with unforeseen emergencies.

Subdued clothing & gear

Since at least half of MibSAR's operations and investigations are criminal in nature—with some involving illegal drugs, weapons, foul play, homicide, and clandestine burial sites—and often require work in remote, seldom-traveled areas that poachers, marijuana growers, malcontents, miscreants, and other unfriendlies call home, all operational clothing, rainsuits, rucksacks, bivouac sacks, tarps, etc. must be low-profile in outward appearance.

Subdued colors such as brown, tan, gray, green, and black are acceptable colors; bright, attention-grabbing colors such red, yellow, orange, pink, and blue are not acceptable.

Heavy camouflage should also be avoided as it creates its own set of problems in encounters with law-abiding civilians.

If bright clothing is needed for certain line searches, or when working with traditional search-and-rescue teams, high-visibility vests, hats, and pack covers can be donned.

Low impact

To reduce the impact on the pristine areas MibSAR frequently operates in, all volunteers must be adherents to the low-impact ethos, which means bushwhacking and bivouacking without campfires, not cutting green vegetation and trees, burying all waste and toilet paper, restoring bivouac sites to the state they were found in, and packing out everything packed in.

Expenses

MibSAR is an all-volunteer, self-funded organization, one in which each volunteer covers his or her own expenses for clothing, gear, training, fuel, rations, travel, insurance, etc. It has no budget, and it does not solicit donations or conduct fundraising drives.

Fluid deployments

Due to the number of cases MibSAR works on, and the variability of a number of factors, including weather, flooding, access to private property, directives from an agency of jurisdiction, logging operations, road closures, etc., most of MibSAR's deployments are fluid in nature, with areas of operation determined on-site, once they get boots on the ground, and in consideration of the latest intel, including new areas of interest.

Response requirement

Since MibSAR works primarily on cold cases, most deployments are planned, multi-day, wilderness operations.

Volunteers must be willing and able to commit to several, multi-day, weekend-centered missions per year, all involving considerable travel in Northern Michigan, perhaps even the eastern Lake Superior watershed area of Ontario, Canada.

Training & certification requirements

As a multinational, civilian-based, volunteer special operations group (SOG), one with volunteers located 100s of miles apart, all of MibSAR's training and certification requirements are designed to be met either within a volunteer's local community, by drawing on local experts and organizations, or online, with recognized providers. Either way, volunteers must be willing and able to commit to considerable training and study demands on an ongoing basis.

If you're a discreet, mature, nonsmoking, physically-and-mentally-robust outdoor enthusiast with a resilient spirit and lots of 4-season, all-weather, off-trail, wilderness backpacking experience, feel free to contact Michael Neiger of Marquette, Michigan to learn more about volunteering with MibSAR on its wilderness operations.

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In God's wilderness
lies the hope of the world,
the great, fresh, unblighted,
unredeemed wilderness.
 — John Muir, 1838-1914
Alaska Wilderness, 1890

If you've been able to read this Web page...
thank a Teacher;
If you've been able to read this Web page in English...
thank a Veteran.
—Author unknown

• Copyright notice •
Content Copyright © 1984 — 2012-03-07
by Michael A. Neiger

• All rights reserved •
No part of this Web page or this Web site protected by copyright law may be reproduced, transmitted, or used in any form—including graphic, electronic, Web, mechanical or other form—or by any means—including photocopying, recording, taping, Internet distribution, information storage retrieval system, or by other means—for any purpose, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages, without the prior, express, written permission of the author.

Comments? Suggestions?
Dead links? Inaccurate info?
Contact the WebMaster, Michael A. Neiger, at mneiger@hotmail.com

Web site URL: https://therucksack.tripod.com/MibSAR/MibSAR.htm

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