Hello Friends! My name is Mike Kohl. I work seasonally at Sleeping Bear Dunes (SLBE) as the park’s Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) ranger. The PSAR team of volunteers educates visitors on trail and water conditions, hiking safety and keeps an eye out for visitors in need of assistance at the Dune Climb and the Lake Michigan Overlook stop on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.
In November, thanks to the continued support of FOSBD, I had the opportunity to attend an all National Park Service (NPS)PSAR training hosted by Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The field of PSAR is seeing explosive growth. A similar training was held at the Grand Canyon in 2023, seemingly overnight, a new career field was born. In 2023 GRSM had two full-time employees on the PSAR team. Fast forward to 2024, and they have nine full-time employees, and seven seasonal employees. Again, explosive growth! Much of the training in November was centered around this growth.

PSAR Volunteer talking to visitors walking from Dune Climb to Lake Michigan
We heard from the PSAR program manager, the supervisor, and the field staff on what this growth felt like from their perspective levels in the program. We heard from Dr. Seth Hawkins about PSAR and its ties with emergency medicine (EMS). We heard from Nathan Finden on signage, specifically he covered the visual communication of extreme heat risk. The topic that I was most excited about was volunteer management. Meg Smith is the PSAR program manager for Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA). For those who do not know, GRCA is the birthplace of PSAR and Meg manages over 75 volunteers. Vetting, recruitment, retention, training, and safety were all topics she addressed. I am proud to report that SLBE is second only to GRCA when it comes to the number of PSAR volunteers in the program.
Thank you again to everyone at Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes. Thank you not only for your continued support of the PSAR program, but for also supporting my personal and professional development. I am excited to take what I learned in November and to applying it next May. I look forward to serving alongside you all in 2025.
Very Respectfully,
Mike Kohl