Skamania breaks search and rescue record

Skamania County smashed its previous record for the number of search and rescues in 2025, Sheriff Summer Scheyer said.

“We ended the year with 73 search and rescues in 2025,” she said.

That’s the most rescues recorded in the six years for which Scheyer has detailed data. She said it’s likely the largest number since Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption, although she cautioned that she doesn’t have data to officially confirm that.

“We jumped so significantly for 2025 that it was quite shocking,” Scheyer said.

This year’s “huge jump” already was apparent by March and had exploded by summer, she said. While winter was slower, it wasn’t enough to stay below the previous record of 67. There were 44 rescues in 2019, 48 in 2020, 67 in 2021 and 2022, 57 in 2023 and 54 in 2024.

Caution urged

Scheyer was a Skamania County sheriff’s deputy for two decades prior to being elected sheriff in 2023. She said Tuesday that search and rescue calls increased significantly with the COVID-19 outdoor recreation boom.

“I’ve seen it in my own reels,” she said, referring to social media posts, “where you see these most epic, beautiful places by influencers, but they don’t explain to you the terrain, they don’t explain to you the shape that you have to be in to navigate or access these beautiful places — you just get to see a glorious picture.”

While she praises people getting sunlight and exercise, she said people need to take precautions to prevent routine mishaps from turning deadly — a fate at least three people suffered this year.

“I’m not against people being out there, but they do not take the proper precautions, even when they have everything at their fingertips — i.e. a smartphone to do their research, to understand the terrain,” Scheyer said. “There’s great websites out there that give all of the details down to like mileposts of what to look for and what to see and where things are trouble.”

Scheyer pointed to oregonhikers.org, which includes detailed information on many Southwest Washington hikes.

She also begged recreationists to bring the 10 essentials with them: navigation, headlamp, sun protection, first aid, knife, fire starter, shelter, extra food, extra water and extra clothes.

Calls and consequences

The explosion of rescues has pushed the small county’s budget and resources toward a breaking point — especially when combined with lost timber revenues and costly state policies.

Skamania County runs on a yearly budget of about $16 million, county Commissioner Asa Leckie said in October. Scheyer said then that the lack of federal money has cost the county about $3 million it has come to rely on in logging’s absence, causing layoffs in her office and school closures.

Scheyer said the situation pushed her to submit an ordinance to the county prosecutor that fines people deemed to be reckless or negligent who require rescue. She said Tuesday that proposal is still with the prosecutor.

She said she also has talked with Kevin Waters — a Republican state legislator and president of the county’s economic development council — about legislative fixes including an effort to use part of hotel and motel tax revenues to bring in more search and rescue funding.

“Typically, they use the little saying, ‘It’s supposed to get heads in beds,’” she said. “Well, my argument is: Those heads in beds are creating a huge public safety crisis within our county, and we’re not alone.”