National Park Service SAR Technician 3 Certification

[sardak]

Last month (May 2011), the US Department of the Interior/National Park Service (NPS) released the first parts of its SAR Positions Qualifications Guide, the Basic Search and Rescue Course and the position task book (PTB) for the entry level SAR Technician - Type 3 (SRT3) qualification. The NPS is the lead federal agency for land SAR under ESF #9 - Search and Rescue.

To become SRT3 qualified requires:
IS-700
ICS-100
Current CPR and first aid
Work Capacity Test ("Pack Test") Moderate Rating (walk 2 miles on level ground in 30 minutes with a 25 pound pack)
Online Basic SAR course (4 to 6 hours) - this is a prerequisite to the 8 hour class
Classroom and practical Basic SAR training (8 hours)
Completion of the SRT3 Position Task Book (recent CAP Talk discussion on PTBs here:  http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=13109.20 )

Recommended:
IS-809 - ESF #9 Search and Rescue
First Responder or higher
Aviation Safety B-3 Course (online through the DOI)

Other land SAR qualifications contained within the guide, but for which course materials are still in work are: SAR Tech - Type 2 (SRT2), SAR Squad Leader (SRT1), SAR Team Leader (SRTL) (teams are made up of squads), Rescue Division Group Supervisor (REGS) and SAR Division /Group Supervisor (DSAR). These all require the arduous pack test (3 mile walk in 45 minutes with a 45 pound pack).

For those familiar with the wildland fire system, all of these will be included in the IQS, IQCS and ROSS. Administratively determined (AD) pay rates have also been set for all of these positions. For example, an SRT3, if hired on a federal incident, is an AD pay rate "B" at $15.64/hour.

The qualifications guide, SRT3 PTB, student materials and online course are available at:

http://connectpro77254837.adobeconnect.com/sar

Mike

[RiverAux]

Does this have any direct impact on other federal agencies (and us)?  Or are other fed agencies (and us) still free to use our own qualification systems?

[RVT]

Does this have any direct impact on other federal agencies (and us)?  Or are other fed agencies (and us) still free to use our own qualification systems?

Just like we got the orange shirt ground team uniform - I would not be surprised to see this added as a requirement.

All I can suggest is do like we did with CERT - track it in Eservices so we know who does and does not have it, so if it becomes a requirement we can react accordingly.

[cap235629]

where can we complete the necessary requirements to obtain the certification?