It was a busy 2025 for Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, helping rescue people lost in the bush, along with assisting on two major wildfires. (Submitted/Arrowsmith SAR on Facebook)

By Ian Holmes

busy year

Arrowsmith SAR reflects on busy 2025, requests updated funding model

Jan 6, 2026 | 1:53 PM

QUALICUM BEACH — A trend of increasing call volumes held firm again last year for Arrowsmith Search and Rescue.

The valued non-profit organization tasked with finding distressed and missing people throughout the vast Oceanside and Mount Arrowsmith region reported 82 callouts for assistance in 2025.

“I really didn’t see a lot of preventable incidents in 2025. Accidents happen, and that’s why we’re here, but I truly think the messaging is starting to work,” Arrowsmith SAR president Nick Rivers told NanaimoNewsNOW in reference to nearly 1,400 hours spent in 2025 on public education outreach.

Highly complex tasks stood out to Rivers last year, pointing to several three-to-four-day assignments, including mutual aid calls throughout Vancouver Island.

Urban searches in Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Nanoose Bay for mental health patients, including those with dementia, are on the rise.

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“Definitely in the last three or four years, we’ve seen a real spike in mental health-related calls,” Rivers said.

Serving a growing region with 60 Arrowsmith SAR volunteers in place, including 10 non-field operational personnel, Rivers said their busy 2025 included working a pair of large forest fires: the Wesley Ridge and Mount Underwood wildfires.

Arrowsmith SAR was deployed to assist with the evacuation of more than one thousand properties due to the large summer fires.

Emerging technology factors heavily into Arrowsmith SAR’s operations.

The organization purchased a specialized feature-packed $40,000 drone, which has since been used several times.

Arrowsmith SAR members testing out their drones in April. (Submitted/Arrowsmith SAR on Facebook)

Rivers said the considerable amount of time spent on training includes staying up to speed on ever-evolving technology.

He said the drone helps find distressed subjects faster, while also keeping their members safer by allowing the overhead camera to scope out potentially dangerous terrain and swift-moving rapids.

“The tools available to us now that weren’t available to us even a year ago is really game-changing, and we want to be at the forefront of that.”

While Arrowsmith SAR responds 24/7 to displaced people requiring assistance, the organization also needs help in the form of increased and more reliable funding.

With an annual budget averaging $400,000, Rivers said they are saddled with a roughly $100,000 annual shortfall.

He described the funding model for BC’s ground SAR organizations as “broken” and called for a new formula.

“We’re not worried about groceries, but we do have power and insurance and everything that goes along with that. Our insurance bills alone are about $30,000 a year.”

More information on Arrowsmith SAR, including an online donation option, is available here.

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