WEST TURIN, N.Y. (WWTI) – New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers helped an 82-year-old man from Turin in a wilderness search over the weekend.

On Saturday, September 14, Lewis County Dispatch requested Forest Ranger assistance for a hunter who fell in Lesser Wilderness State Forest just before 3:45 p.m. The 82-year-old from Turin said he wasn’t injured, but unable to get up.

Ranger Evans and Thomes worked with Sheriff’s Deputies to find the subject, help him up, and walk him out of the woods to his vehicle. Resources were clear at 4:47 p.m. 

In 2022, DEC Forest Rangers conducted 359 search and rescue missions, extinguished 162 wildfires covering more than 1,300 acres, participated in 53 prescribed fires that served to rejuvenate nearly 900 acres of land, and worked on cases that resulted in hundreds of tickets and arrests.