After light summer, search and rescues ready for lost hunter season

This summer’s strange playbook — first flooding, then fire — has been just as strange for Central Okanagan Search and Rescue.

“We were busy during the spring and early summer, but when they shut down the back country, it made life easier,” spokesman Duane Tresnich said, with calls for lost hikers and bikers virtually drying up.

The B.C. provincial government closed access on August 11 to large swaths of the province as the number of wildfires burning soared during this summer’s hot, dry weather.

Tresnich said search and rescue volunteers were also busy before that, helping RCMP go door-to-door alerting residents to evacuation orders, first for local flooding then for wildfires, such as the one that destroyed eight houses in Lake Country in mid-July.

With fire risk abating and the back country reopening in time for hunting season, his worry now is pent up demand will see hunters and outdoor enthusiasts rush into the wilderness before the snow flies.

“They want to get their skills back up, they want to get in as many trips in as they can before winter,” Tresnich said.

Of particular concern, Tresnich says, is hunters who leave only a vague description of where they are hunting, hoping to keep their secret spots concealed from competitors.

Instead, they wind up lost and volunteers have to search a much wider area, taking up more time and scant resources, he says.

If he had his way, all back country users would be equipped with a life-saving GPS messaging system equipped with an SOS button.

“If you can’t do that, at least give someone some details of where you're going to be,” he says. “Near Beaver Lake doesn’t tell us very much.”

He also asks back country users to leave a time when they expect to be home. And he asks those at home to waste no time reporting it if the person is overdue.

“That waiting 24 hours is from television,” he says. “You don’t have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing. If they aren’t home on time and you feel something is wrong, report them missing right away.”

Tresnich says it’s much easier and safer to find someone during daylight hours than in the dark of night.


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John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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