Welcome to the Mountaineer Area Rescue Group (MARG). We are a volunteer search and rescue organization dedicated to saving lives in the outdoors. Our missions include wilderness search for lost persons and rescue of the injured from hiking, hunting, or other outdoor accidents. 

We also assist with other outdoor rescues including cave rescues and technical (requiring the use of rope) evacuations of the injured. Our group is composed of experts in many fields including search management, cave rescue, communications, and wilderness medicine. We are an affiliate (local chapter)

of the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference (ASRC). The Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference is a community of nine search and rescue groups spanning from Columbus, OH through southern Virginia. All groups follow a common set of operating and training standards. Although we conduct training locally, all of our members are tested in accordance with the standards of the ASRC prior to certification.

The Mountaineer Area Rescue Group’s normal coverage area is within a 3-hour drive of Morgantown, West Virginia. Most of our members live in Monongalia and Preston Counties and the surrounding area in West Virginia. We work with many other emergency services organizations across the region. We will respond outside our normal service area in response to a mutual-aid request from any of these groups.

The Mountaineer Area Rescue Group responds to missions when local authorities request us. We function under the authority of the agency responsible for search and rescue in that jurisdiction (e.g. State Police, County Sheriff, Fire Department, Civil Air Patrol Mission Coordinator, Local Emergency Services Coordinator, Park Superintendent, etc.) MARG (and ASRC) will only conduct operations at the request of such agencies, and will directly support the responsible agency.

The Mountaineer Area Rescue Group is alerted for a local mission about 10 times each year. We typically have a full-blown mission in the area about 4 times a year. Additionally, as a part of the ASRC, we are alerted to missions throughout the ASRC area, which occur more frequently, however our response to these distant missions is typically very limited.

We understand that all members are volunteers, and that there will be times when any one of us is unavailable to respond. We ask only that once you are “Callout Qualified” you keep your pager with you whenever you are in the area so that you will be alerted for each mission. Then you can decide whether or not you are available to respond immediately or at some time in the future.

All Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference field members are experienced in outdoors activities, with training in land navigation, wilderness and emergency medicine, wilderness survival, and mountain rescue. Training and certification of Mountaineer Area Rescue Group members meets strict ASRC standards. Administrative, medical, communications, and base management members support our field operations. Anyone who is interested and willing to help is welcome to join. Most members train and become certified in field operations, but we are also looking for members who can assist with administration (e.g., lawyers and accountants). If you are interested in joining or helping, call, write, or come to a meeting or training session.

We hold business meetings the third Monday of most months at 6:30pm in the meeting room of Star City VFD, located on University Ave. in Star City, WV. We are not in any way affiliated with Star City VFD, however in support of our public service mission, they allow us to use their meeting room for our monthly meetings. The meeting schedule is occasionally modified, so please call to ensure that we are meeting. We schedule outdoor training sessions monthly to accommodate the training needs of our members. Call for the current schedule. Visitors are welcome at all meetings and training sessions.