CARIBOU – Whenever wardens with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are called in to search for a missing or lost individual, members of Orono’s Dirigo Search and Rescue Team are not far behind.

While the wardens’ command post trailer was the most conspicuous center of activity during the four-day search for Goldie Jordan, 67, of Caribou, the Dirigo mobile headquarters trailer was off to the side and just as busy.

“We run the staging area for the wardens,” Dave Martin, Dirigo team president, said Sunday afternoon while packing up to head home. “We also run a search team in the field.”

The organization has about 40 members and takes part in about five searches a year.

A warden with a tracking dog found Jordan alive early Sunday afternoon after she was reported missing Wednesday evening from her Powers Road home.

Assisting the wardens were hundreds of civilian volunteers and searchers. Not one of them was deployed until they had checked in at the Dirigo trailer.

“The volunteers sign in here, and we collect all their information,” Martin said. “Then we can match people to the teams needed by the wardens.”

It’s the kind of service that frees up the wardens for other search duties.

“They do work that has to be done, and if they were not here, we would have to bring in more people to do it,” Sgt. Greg Sanborn of the Maine Warden Service said. “They are with us on every search, and we are deeply appreciative of what they do.”

Inside the Dirigo trailer, a bulletin board contains the names of all searchers, their affiliation and team assignments. Martin and his crew also keep track of who is in the field and who has returned.

“Any time there is a search, you will see our command trailer, the Dirigo trailer and usually food in between,” Sanborn said.

At the Caribou post, the Dirigo team had brought along a radio relay antenna, which they set up for the wardens at the northern terminus of the search area. The antenna greatly expanded the range of the searchers’ communication radios, Sanborn said.

“Every one of our members are volunteers,” Martin said. “We all do it because we love it. We get some fund-raising money and put some of our own money into this.

“We are a lot better at search and rescue than fund raising, though.”

Martin could not have been happier with the outcome of the weekend search.

“It’s really great,” he said, “particularly when things had gotten to the point we really didn’t think we’d find her alive.”