When birthday boy Jim Jontz won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, representing Indiana's Fifth Congressional District, he took his passion for environmental and other social justice causes with him to Washington, D.C.,

Jontz worked to protect old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. “I looked around and saw a lot of people were very close to the timber industry,” Jontz said. “That’s OK: they need some support: but why should they have it all? There are other voices, too. "

The zeal in which Jontz pursued protecting nature frustrated and sometimes infuriated congressman from other states, who saw him as meddling in matters that were outside the district he represented.

Jontz’s sponsorship of the Ancient Forest Protection Act, which would have forbid cutting stands of ancient timber in three western states, caused one Oregon congressman to call him “a rank opportunist,” while another he kicked him out of his office during a meeting.

Upset by Jontz’s successful effort to end arrangements benefiting timber companies in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, Congressman Don Young introduced a bill to establish 35 percent of Jontz’s Indiana’s district, a mixture of farmland and factories, as a national forest.

Jontz gave Young credit for his “humorous proposal,” and said he kept asking the Alaskan legislator if he could have an autographed copy of the bill. “He’s very creative and entertaining,” Jontz said of Young.

On a more serious note, to respond to charges that he was interfering in matters that were not his business, Jontz defended his actions. He called the ancient forests in the West “a national treasure, much as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and the Everglades are."

Jontz added: "If we cut the last 10 percent of the ancient forests for short-term greed, they will be gone forever. If we preserve them, future generations, as well as our own, will be able to enjoy their benefits.”

The trees in national forests, Jontz also pointed out, were not the private property of anyone, but “public lands owned by the citizens of Indiana as much as by citizens anywhere, and they should be managed for the well-being of the public, not just a few.”

Jontz’s passion when it came to helping preserve wild areas puzzled one of his campaign volunteers, who noticed that he talked about the outdoors, but never did any camping or hiking. “I will someday,” Jontz said, “and I want to know it will be there when I’m ready to enjoy it