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Board member emeritus Jim Evanoff in his study

Board Emeritus Awarded Conservationist Award from the Cinnabar Foundation

October 21, 2024

[Released and reposted from the Cinnabar Foundation website]

Board Member Emeritus, Jim Evanoff, was recently awarded the Jim Posewitz Professional Conservationist Award from Cinnabar Foundation. Former WSE Executive Director, Lill Erickson, shares:

“Jim is an innovator, a problem solver, and a uniter of people who care about the Greater Yellowstone. I cannot think of a more deserving person for this recognition. We all owe Jim a huge thank you for all he has done to protect this special place we are lucky enough to call home.“

Check out the press release below from Cinnabar:

Jim Evanoff was selected to receive the eighth Jim Posewitz Professional Conservationist Award for his innovative work to make Yellowstone National Park (YNP) a world leader in sustainability, including the “Greening of Yellowstone Initiative,” as well as problem-solving on many other energy issues.

Nominated by the Western Sustainability Exchange, Jim was an active volunteer for 12 years, and served as co-chair for three years. He was honored in 2023 as a board member emeritus.

Jim started his career at Curecanti National Recreation Area (Gunnison, CO). He then moved to Grand Teton National Park to work as a historic preservation specialist before transferring to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks (Utah). He next worked at Mount Rushmore National Memorial before going to Yellowstone National Park in 1988.

In 1988, Jim made a commitment to bring about a more sustainable YNP. He saw sustainability as an essential part of the public land mission — to preserve and protect the park for future generations — at risk.

As the former Environmental Protection Specialist for YNP, Jim established key relationships for WSE with YNP and its primary concessionaire, Xanterra Parks and Resorts. He was also instrumental in implementing a Park-wide recycling program that diverted about 1,200 tons of the Park’s waste from landfills each year. He also created a partnership to establish a compost facility in West Yellowstone to handle both the Park’s food waste as well as neighboring communities.

Jim also tackled energy issues by solarizing the Buffalo Ranch and partnering with Toyota to use retired
batteries from their electric cars to store the solar energy. He also installed a micro-hydro system to generate power without building a dam.

One of his most significant innovations was pioneering a solution to the National Park Service’s serious
problem of abandoned propane tanks left behind by campers. When Coleman, the manufacturer of the
tanks, refused to address the issue, Jim worked with a small Billings, MT company to retrofit a truck that could extract the remaining fuel, crush the tanks for metal recycling, and then use the propane to run the truck and its extracting/crushing operation.

Jim’s creativity didn’t stop there. He facilitated the creation of a glass crusher so that abandoned glass could be crushed into various-size pieces and used for landscaping and road beds in the Park, he championed an effort to switch the janitorial staff’s cleaning products from toxic to environmentally-preferable ones, and also led the charge to switch the diesel fleet of vehicles to a renewable bio-diesel blend. The latter reduced park emissions by 52 metric tons annually, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Jim’s sustainability model for YNP has inspired dozens of parks in the U.S. and internationally to follow suit.

Jim’s recognition for his lifetime commitment to the values of sustainability and creative problem-solving to protect Mother Earth — and always with a sense of humor and genuine respect for the people and resources of Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — was accompanied by a $5,000 special grant that he designated to be split between Western Sustainability Exchange ($3,000) and Bear Creek Council ($2,000), a Northern Plains Resource Council affiliate.

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