Mounted search and rescue

[Tm' Fi <tfinkle@erols.com>]

It is very unlikely that any non-governement response and/or recovery 
resource such as a MSAR Team or Mounted Posse will ever receive one cent 
of DHS/FEMA money. The biggest dog gets the nicest bones and NIMS/ICS 
requirements are not about laws, they are about referencing Presidential 
Directives and Executives Orders.  To better understand how such legal 
vessels work, please contact your local lawyer rather than believing any 
opinion voiced in this forum (to include my own comments).  

ICS is a template that every local, county, state or federal government 
resource must use "ONCE" an incident "outgrows the capasity/resource 
limits" of that lowest level of local government.  A local incident that 
has no chance of requiring outside help does not need to utilize an ICS 
template.  In fact, it's true that no local or state government 
jurisdiction MUST use the ICS template or become NIMS compliant. 
HOWEVER, any or all federal dollars set aside for any type of emergency 
services can be withheld to that government, should their resources not 
be NIMS/ICS compliant.  Another catch 22 is that this has a direct on a 
local government resource, should ANY non government response or 
recovery personnel be used (which includes MSAR volunteers) those 
resources must be NIMS/ICS compliant too.  Since 49 out of 50 states 
have signed a formal MOU assistance agreement, NIMS/ICS is going to be a 
way of life for all government and non government response and recovery 
resources (FYI- Hawaii has not yet signed on).    Federal dollars will 
begin to be withheld to non compliant AHJ's on Oct. 1, 2006 (Start of FY-07)

Please note that I used the term response and recovery resources (not 
first responder).  The conflict that I've been seeing here has included 
some terms which clouds the true picture. As an example, MSAR personnel 
are NOT first responders, they are resources for first responders.   
Almost every County or Parish within any State receives federal DHS/EMS 
dollars.  Bottom line is that no state is going to turn down these kind 
of federal funds because of a few hours of training courses.  Does 
anyone remember when the FED's told states to lower lower the BAC levels 
of drunk drivers to .08 (did your state lower its limit within the past 
few years? DOT money talks too).  Civilian non-governement teams who 
want to play with the paid government personnel and their resources will 
need to comply or not play.   

Please keep in mind that funding for resources comes in different ways. 
 Our team received 2 dozen old (some brand new never used) VHF radios, 
batteries, mic's and chargers from one of the local County governments. 
Why, because they received federal money to upgrade their EMS system 
that met DHS recommendations.  The County even had our radios 
reprogrammed at no cost to us because we were a listed as current SAR 
resource who maintains training and other requirements.  

The overall DHS/FEMA NIMS/ICS/NRP program has many faults.  But keep in 
mind it is still a new organizational element that is trying to make 
things safer for this country and as a whole trying to unite response 
and recovery resources, with the overall goal that they can "one day" 
work as ONE TEAM any where their services may be needed.     
 
Anyone is welcome to contact me directly for more information.  I am a 
HQ emergency manager for a Federal Government organization and the 
assistant commander of the TROT-SAR mounted team.  I work with 
NIMS/ICS/NRP issues on a daily basis and would be happy to share what 
I've learned.  For those who would like to read more about this topic, 
information can be found at 
<http://www.nimsonline.com/nims_training/index.htm>

Tomi`
301-412-5249
State of Maryland