Search and rescue funds - don't leave home without them.

Adventurers exploring U.S. wilderness areas can find themselves wandering aimlessly, lost and confused, in the great outdoors from time to time. Once they're found and brought back to civilization, the lost souls' gratitude (and memories) often fail when the bill arrives for their search and rescue.

Officials in scenic counties - who bear the fiscal, and in some cases statutory, burden of rescuing their visitors - often have to cross their fingers and hope that they can be repaid for efforts that can be very expensive. For example, the rescue last winter of a victim who had dug himself into a snow cave in Colorado's Routt County required military equipment, including infrared scanning, and cost more than $23,000.

Even "throwaway" items can have a financial impact. Utah Representative John Valentine, a lieutenant in the Utah County Search and Rescue Program and sponsor of legislation to create a search and rescue fund, points out that a rescuer's rope can cost $150; other, more complex, rescue equipment can cost many thousands of dollars.

Now, however, rescuers in some areas, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah and Wyoming, can turn to state funds that have been earmarked for search and rescue efforts.

Colorado has established a multitier program to aid counties. Tiers I and II of the fund help any state agency, county or local government recoup part or all of the operational costs incurred in searches for hunters, fishers, boaters, snowmobilers, hikers or off-road enthusiasts whose rescues are, through license fees, covered by the fund. At year's end, the fund's Tier III (composed of money that remains after searches have been paid for) covers reimbursable expenses like training and equipment. Last year tiers I and II spent slightly more than $100,000 for searches; the Tier III reimbursement fund returned some $300,000 to sheriffs' departments around the state that applied for the money.

The state Department of Local Affairs administers the fund; county sheriffs certify claims before submitting them for payment. The legislature annually appropriates money for administrative costs.

In Utah, Representative Valentine's legislation led in 1997 to creation of the Search and Rescue Financial Assistance Program. This effort is financed in part by a 50-cent surcharge on off-road vehicles and a 25-cent surcharge on hunting or fishing licenses. Holding to the belief that search and rescue funds should be paid roughly in proportion to who benefits from the service and not concentrated among hunters and fishermen, another half of the fund comes from general sales tax revenues. The fund is administered by the state Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management.

As in Colorado, counties can seek reimbursement from the fund for expenses related to search and rescue activities for lost hikers, hunters, fishermen and skiers. Reimbursable expenses include rental of aircraft, helicopters, snowmobiles, boats and generators; training of volunteers; and replacing and upgrading search and rescue equipment.