A Pennsylvania family is thanking their lucky stars after their 22-year-old son has recovered from being struck by a tree that collapsed while he was hiking near Porcupine Falls in Wyoming earlier this summer.

Will Dusinberre was working at a ranch in Wyoming when he and some friends made the trek to Porcupine Falls on their day off. Instead of it being a peaceful summer hike, it turned into a nightmare when Dusinberre and his friends were struck by a tree as it collapsed.

“I don’t remember much from that day or even the day before really,” Dusinberre said Monday afternoon. “I just remember hiking out with my buddies and that we had stopped to swim and relax for a little bit.”

Dusinberre is hazy on the details of the day but has heard more of the timeline from witnesses and his friends that were there.

“Somebody yelled ‘Tree,’ and turned around and I was already hit,” Dusinberre said. “I didn’t have time to move.”

One of Dusinberre’s friends who wasn’t injured ran to the top of the trail looking for help. That run would’ve been about seventh-tenths of a mile, and he was shouting for help the entire way.

Fortunately, he managed to catch Michelle and Jesse Rystrom before they drove away. Michelle is an emergency nurse, and Jesse is a firefighter paramedic.

“We thought we heard somebody yell help,” Michelle said. “A young kid was running up the trail and was saying that a tree had fallen and one of his friends (was) bleeding from his head.”

Without thinking, the Rystroms sprang into action, sprinting down the trail to help the victims.

“Your adrenaline kind of just kicks in, and your mom mode kicks in, and you just start taking care of the kids,” Michelle said.

Both Rystroms said it was impeccable timing for them to be in the right position to help.

“Everything lined out just to help them because there was nobody else in the parking lot that was there,” Jesse said. “We almost weren’t even going to be there that day but the weather was cold so we stopped there.”

“You’re in the right place at the right time that’s for sure,” Michelle said.

With the Rystroms’ help, Dusinberre was eventually transported to St. Vincent’s Healthcare in Billings, where his parents had frantically traveled from Pennsylvania to be with their son.

“It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out how serious the injury was,” said Dusinberre’s mother Louise Dusinberre. “It was horrific. Will was unrecognizable.”

That shocking condition of their son left Louise numb.

“My emotions were just put on hold because you’re just full in that fight or flight,” Louise said. “It’s been the fight of our lifetime for a month and a half.”

That fight has included several surgeries, hours of rehab and plenty of dark days. Somehow, Will has remained positive the entire time.

“It’s allowed me to appreciate all the things I have in the moment and the things I can get back to eventually,” Will said.

Among those things is playing the guitar and singing. Will has managed to do that early in the rehab, donning an eye patch and missing teeth from the incident. It’s a sight and sound his mother is grateful for.

“It was just a lot of heroes and angels right where they needed to be,” Louise said.

Will is expected to make a full recovery and plans to get started with his senior year of college in the spring. Even he understands how fortunate he is that the Rystroms and others were there to help.

“I wouldn’t be here without them,” Will said. “But the fact that they were even there in the first place is just kind of a miracle.”

People living along Pass Creek Road 45 mile west of Sheridan were evacuated Monday morning, as were residences west of the intersection of Amsden and Tongue Canyon Roads, in the face of a rapidly advancing wildfire.

Some outbuildings have already been lost to what’s been named the Elk Fire, which is burning a few miles northwest of Dayton, Wyoming, in northern Sheridan County. It’s exploded from 27 acres Friday to an estimated 22,000 acres by early Monday afternoon.

A complex incident management team has been called to take command of the fire, amid shifting wind that has already changed the fire’s direction once and is likely to do so again.

Hot, dry conditions boosted the fire’s activity over the weekend, but what really turned it into a fiery tiger was the wind, which picked up later in the day Saturday. That not only benched aerial firefighting assets, it also pushed the fire through a 1996 burn scar straight toward an abundant source of light, dry fuels.

Firefighters also reported difficulty getting into the area because of the terrain and downed trees.

By Monday, fire crews reported that they were focusing on protecting structures along the face of the Mountain Pass Creek, Smith Creek and Twin Creek areas, while residents west of the intersection of Tongue Canyon and Amsden roads were ordered to evacuate.

Residences east of that intersection are in “set” mode, meaning they should be ready to evacuate on a moment’s notice, as are homes in the Horse Shoe Subdivision. The town of Dayton isn’t under an evacuation order, but people there are on alert.

Several road closures in the area have been announced, including Pass Creek, Twin Creek, Smith Creek and Tongue Canyon roads, to allow firefighters to operate safely.

Those needing shelter for livestock or themselves are advised to call Sheridan County Emergency Management at 307-752-2174.

Dayton Residents Wake Up To Apocalypse

Residents of Dayton, about 3-5 miles from the fire, woke up Monday morning to what some described as an apocalyptic scene.

Billowing smoke blotted out the sky, casting it in all grey for some. Others, such as Karen Parrish Fate, could see a tiny window of stained-glass blue being rapidly overtaken with rolling smoke that appeared to be headed straight for them.

Dayton was not yet in the “set” mode at noon Monday, but its school was closed earlier in the morning out of an abundance of caution.

Some Dayton locals were also already packing up their things, just in case the wind doesn’t change direction and they need to evacuate.

Among these proactive packers was Sherry Tarver, who lives on Tongue River Road.

“We are packing up the important items now,” she told Cowboy State Daily via Facebook messenger. “But our van and truck can only hold so much.”

Tarver reported the road to the canyon closed just past her house, right where the street turns to dirt.

“The houses along the Canyon Road and Amsden are evacuated,” she said. “Please pray for our communities.”

Parkman Home Spared

Mariann Eckendorf shared photos of fire on the horizon over by Big Horn Mountain Alpacas Farm about 9 p.m. Sunday.

“Then the wind switched in the night and headed toward Dayton, which spared my place for now,” she wrote. “I’m thankful for great friends and neighbors ready to help evacuate me and my daughter’s animals out if needed. Praying for all those in its path. Thank you, firefighters.”

Likewise, Anussa D. Britton Slyngstad reported fire about 5 miles from her residence in Parkman, Wyoming, in the former Parkman School.

“The wind changed and it moved to Tongue River Rd. And Amsden Rd.,” she wrote on a Facebook post made in TR Happenings by Cowboy State Daily.

Donations of water, snacks and money to buy food for firefighters and volunteers were being accepted at Parkman Bar and Grill Monday morning.

“We are donating Parkman Food/Chicken Buckets and Snacks/water today,” a post on the Parkman Bar and Grill read.

“Thank God and generosity of our Wyoming neighbors” Jim Pilch Sr. wrote.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.

Cheyenne, Wyoming — Outrage over how a man struck a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the injured animal’s mouth shut and brought it into a bar has resulted in a proposal to tweak Wyoming’s animal cruelty law to apply to people who legally kill wolves by intentionally running them over.

Under draft legislation headed to a legislative committee Monday, people could still intentionally run over wolves but only if the animal is killed quickly, either upon impact or soon after.

Wyoming’s animal cruelty law is currently written to not apply at all to predators such as wolves. The proposed change would require a person who hits a wolf that survives to immediately use “all reasonable efforts” to kill it.

The bill doesn’t specify how a surviving wolf is to be killed after it is intentionally struck.

The fate of the wolf struck last winter in western Wyoming has prompted a fresh look at state policies toward wolves. Wildlife advocates have pushed back against reluctance in the ranching state to change laws written after long negotiations to remove federal protection for the species.

Although further changes to the draft bill may be in the works, the proposal up for discussion Monday wouldn’t change much, said Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

“Everybody is against torturing animals. There is not a person I’ve come across so far that has said, ‘Yes, I want to continue to do that,’” Combs said Friday.

Caught on camera, the wolf seen lying on a bar floor in Sublette County led to calls to boycott Wyoming’s $4.8 billion-a-year tourism industry centered on Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which comprise a prime wolf habitat not far from where the wolf was struck.

The organizing has had little effect, with Yellowstone on track for one of its busiest summer seasons on record.

Meanwhile, the man who hit the wolf – and killed it after showing it off – paid a $250 ticket for illegal possession of wildlife but didn’t face tougher charges.

Investigators in Sublette County said their investigation into the wolf incident has stalled because witnesses refuse to talk. County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said by email Friday the case remained under investigation and he couldn’t comment on its details.

The draft bill to be discussed Monday would allow somebody who intentionally hits a wolf with a vehicle to be charged with felony animal cruelty if it survives and they don’t kill it right away.

How often wolves in Wyoming are intentionally run over – for a quick death or otherwise – is unknown. Such killings don’t have to be reported and recorded cases like the Sublette County incident are rare.

The case brought fresh attention to Wyoming’s policies for killing wolves, which are the least restrictive of any state where the animals roam. Wolves kill sheep, cattle and game animals, making them unpopular throughout the rural country of ranchers and hunters.

Across the region, state laws seek to keep the predators from proliferating out of the mountainous Yellowstone ecosystem and into other areas where ranchers run cattle and sheep.

In most of the U.S., wolves are federally protected as an endangered or threatened species, but not in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where they’re hunted and trapped under state laws and regulations. In Wyoming, wolves may be killed without limit in 85% of the state outside the Yellowstone region.

Though few in Wyoming have spoken out in favor of what happened to the wolf, officials have been reluctant to change the law to discourage maltreatment. Jim Magagna with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association condemned what happened but called it an isolated incident unrelated to the state’s wolf management laws.