Ventura County East Valley Search and Rescue Team

10/15/2026

10/14/2026

October Team Training - All County Training!

Our once a year joint training with all our county SAR teams - we train, we eat, we celebrate new members getting their badges and members getting service awards.

Congratulations to:

⭐️Bo Medina⭐️ - 2️⃣0️⃣ YEARS!!!

⭐️Matt Dourthe, Krista Franchi and David Marusa⭐️ - 1️⃣0️⃣ YEARS!

⭐️Stephanie Hong, James Reynolds, Bruce Stanley and Trevor Sturges⭐️ - on getting their badges!!

📸 Photo Credits: Antonio Arizo

10/02/2026

⭐CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST TEAM MEMBERS⭐️

Last month we held the final exam for our probationary members and we're proud to say they all passed! 😎
So congrats and welcome to the team-

🌟James Reynolds
🌟Stephanie Hong
🌟Trevor Sturges
🌟Bruce Stanley

10/01/2026

Say hi 👋 to our new friends - The Ventura County Animal Services Emergency Volunteer Rescue Team (EVRT)! Their mission is to assist in the evacuation of livestock and domestic animals during declared emergencies in Ventura County. Our missions are pretty much the same - we help evacuate you during an emergency, they help evacuate your large animals!

So give the EVRT a follow EVRT Large Animal Evacuation- Ventura County Animal Services and if you know someone in Ventura County that has large animals, pass this information on because during an emergency - seconds count! 🐎🐄⛑️⏱️🚨

Photos courtesy of Allison Tashnek

09/23/2026

🍁 🎃 Fall, farms, 🚜 and public safety 🚔 — sounds like a pretty good weekend to us!

We’re excited to be part of Friends of the Farm/Public Safety Weekend at Underwood Family Farms!!!

09/21/2026

⭐️September Team Training⭐️

Long training day? ✅
Final field exam for our probationary members? ✅
Pizza 🍕 tradition - Absolutely! ✅

As most SAR teams know, putting on the final skills test for their probationary members is no easy task, it takes a lot of planning, hard work and a lot of people to keep things running smoothly. So after it was all over, the team took a break to relax, refuel and celebrate the end of our nine month SAR academy! A little food, a lot of laughs and some well deserved team time! 😎

Photo credits: Frank Dikken, Paul Raab & Krista Franchi

09/04/2026

So incredibly grateful ☺️

09/02/2026

August Team Training-
🎵workin’ on our night moves🎵
Beautiful night to be outside!
🔸rappel ascend
🔸pickoffs
🔸area familiarization (AFAM)
🔸anchors - testing strength & stability
📸: Jared Graham, Michelle Fishman, David Marusa, Marc Alabanza, Bo Medina & Krista Franchi

07/26/2026

Eriodictyon parryi - aka Poodle Dog Bush.
Most plants want your attention, this one wants your dermatologist! 😎

Poodle Dog Bush is a tall mountain plant in California that grows thickly after wildfires and causes a very painful skin rash. Typically found at elevations of 3,000 to 7,500 ft, more common in the Angeles National Forest than in Ventura County but can be found in the Los Padres National Forest.

Poodle Dog Bush is not oil based (like Poison Oak) and cannot be washed off with soap and water. The plant’s tiny hairs stick to you upon contact. Reactions can take 3-10 days to appear and up to a month for the nasty rash to subside. 😳

If you see it:

📸 Take a picture - memories don't cause rashes!
🥾 Walk around it - give it plenty of space!
🚫 Don't touch it - it's not worth the itch!
🐕‍🦺 Don't let your dog brush through it - keep them safe too!

07/23/2026

Early Sunday morning, team members headed out to the San Gabriel Mountains to answer a mutual aid call for assistance to locate a missing hiker. Once deployed, team members faced near 100 degree heat, little to no shade, steep and rocky terrain and the dreaded Poodle Dog Bush (more on that in another post).
Not ideal conditions but that is the nature of SAR and we are prepared for this, it's what we train for.

Big thanks to the California Army National Guard 🤙🚁 for bringing in their UH-60 Blackhawk and the CHP - Air Operations for bringing in their H-80, we appreciated being dropped off and picked up for our assignments!

Photo credits: Frank Dikken & Krista Franchi