Jonathan Klein dedicated over three decades to managing wilderness for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
He was BLM’s first wilderness ranger for their first ever Wilderness, the Bear Trap Canyon Unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness before transferring to the Forest Service as a recreation planner and wilderness manager in Ennis, MT. Klein has spent a lifetime recreating in wild places and working to protect them. His adventures have included several trips on northern rivers by canoe, and kayaking Alaska’s inside passage. His most ambitious trip, the subject of his recently published book, Back to the Trees and Caves, chronicles the canoe journey he undertook at age 60, paddling alone across 700-miles of Canadian wilds to reach Hudson Bay after 48 days of struggle and toil. Klein’s wish to discover the essence of wilderness is answered, especially in a life and death encounter with an apex predator, a confrontation that brings him face to face with the harsh, yet majestic reality of the wilds.