Making His Mark
Jeff Ewelt prepares to say goodbye to ZooMontana and Billings
In the natural world, there exists a symbiotic relationship that connects all things for their mutual benefit.
Jeff Ewelt, the long-time face of ZooMontana known as “Jeff the Nature Guy,” echoes this principle on a human level. He and his team have long created connections between the zoo and the community that have benefited both.
“I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I really believe the community is proud of what we have here,” Jeff says.
After 14 years as director, he’s ready to take on the role of chief zoological officer at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. If he seems in a hurry to leave Billings, he’s definitely not. It’s just his nature to charge ahead, his long strides often leaving others in his wake. Yet it’s also in his nature to abruptly break stride to crouch down and share a special moment with a preschooler — as I observed firsthand.
That signature move reflects both his infectious enthusiasm and his drive for getting things done — a combination that has ingratiated him throughout the region.
Jeff is bittersweet about his departure. His new job will allow him to work more closely with animals — all 39,000 of them at the Omaha facility — but he considers ZooMontana “his baby.”
“This just kind of fell into my lap,” he says of the job offer in Omaha. “It was an opportunity too good to pass up.”
Long-time board member Shelli Mann is sad to see him go. Having worked with him behind the scenes, she’s witnessed his genuine concern for the animals that call ZooMontana home.
“This was not so much a job for Jeff, this was a calling,” she says. “The man even loves the cockroach, for goodness’ sake!”
From his first day at ZooMontana, Jeff rallied the community around a zoo that had lost its accreditation just the day before he took over.
“It was chaotic,” he says, remembering that rocky start. “Morale was not high, and I was coming in as about the 10th director in 20 years.”
As he pondered the wisdom of that decision, a school bus pulled up at the zoo entrance.
“Those kids came off that bus screaming with excitement,” he says. “And I realized, we have to save the zoo for these kids. That got me through that first day.”
That focus has carried Jeff through more than 5,000 days since. A native of Ohio, he remembers the exact moment that cemented his interest in furry, feathered and scaly creatures. During a job shadow in the sixth grade, an animal caregiver from the local science center placed a small Saw-whet owl in young Jeff’s outstretched palm.
“When that owl hit my hand, I knew I wanted to do ‘this,’ even though I really didn’t know what ‘this’ was,” he says.
While studying at Ohio State University in Columbus, he landed his first job at the world-famous Columbus Zoo — selling hotdogs and Pepsi at the concessions stand. That’s also where he first crossed paths with the renowned Columbus Zoo Director Jack Hanna.
“I was starstruck,” he says.
Yet, Hanna’s ties to Montana had nothing to do with Jeff’s move to the Big Sky State. Jeff had spent a decade as the animal ambassador at ZooTampa in Florida when he and his wife sought a new place to raise their newborn son. They’d always been drawn to the West and, when he noticed that the Beartooth Nature Center in Red Lodge (now the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary) was advertising for a new director, he jumped at the opportunity.
“Lo and behold, it happened,” he says. “My wife came sight unseen.”
Three years later, Ewelt took the director’s job at the struggling ZooMontana.
“It was struggling strictly because of financial reasons,” he says. “The animal care was good. It never wavered.”
As the grounds languished and outreach waned, Jeff found his moment to shine. But his outspoken enthusiasm didn’t come to him naturally.
“This shocks people, but I am a very introverted person,” he says. “I’m shy when I’m not at work. I had to teach myself to be comfortable with people.”
That self-taught lesson really paid off. Jeff credits the Billings Gazette’s 2011 “Save the Zoo” campaign for igniting a sense of hope for the zoo. Yet, money alone would not save it.=
Ewelt’s zeal earned him invitations to media events. “They gave me a chance to make news anchors scream at six in the morning,” he says with a smile. That dispelled the rumors of gloom and doom at the zoo and steamrolled into a new sense of excitement.
To fuel those positive vibes, Jeff and his staff poured their energies into being so much more than a zoo. And in doing so, the zoo became a vital cog in the community.
When a zoo visitor told Jeff it was his third trip to the zoo that summer — to a wedding, with family and lastly to a concert — Jeff knew their efforts were making a difference.
“That was fantastic,” he says. “The fact that we are so much more than a zoo, we did that on purpose.”
Likewise, ZooMontana has welcomed groups, such as the botanical society and members of Yellowstone Arboretum, which have invigorated the zoo through their own projects.
“We knew these would bring a different crowd of people,” he says.
Carloads of families also came for the zoo’s spectacular holiday light event. And when the zoo shifted to the more recent “Holiday Nights”, a walkable event with more than 10 million lights, the change in approach not only quadrupled the zoo’s proceeds but lured a whole new demographic to the zoo.
In maintaining that symbiotic relationship, ZooMontana has shared its success with its neighbors, donating more than $40,000 annually in zoo passes to local non-profits.
“We want to ensure that they’re able to do their missions,” Jeff says.
Seeing how the zoo has brought pride to the community is its own reward for Jeff. On the cusp of his departure, he looks to his recent accomplishments — the new foster waterfowl habitat that beautified one of the zoo’s uglier patches— and he exudes excitement for the upcoming capital campaign that will fund the zoo’s own onsite veterinarian clinic.
“And the parking lot,” Jeff says with a laugh. “It may sound goofy, but it’s been a 20-year project. It was like a moonscape. We needed to clean it up.”
Above all, Jeff relishes the zoo’s crowning moment, when the Association of Zoos and Aquariums re-established ZooMontana’s accreditation eight years after it was taken away.
“That was the most memorable moment of my career,” he says. “They called us into the room and we got a standing ovation.”
As Ewelt looks to the future, he puts his full trust in his team for carrying ZooMontana forward without him.
“I will miss them more than they will ever know,” he says. “I have been the face of the zoo and I always got the credit. But the credit is due to this team.”
Mann agrees, noting that Jeff has encouraged new leaders who will step up. As she expresses sadness to see him leave, she is excited for his future.
“Jeff is a star in the zoological world, and we will be seeing more of him, no doubt,” she says. “And when he has his own TV show and is famous around the world, Billings can brag that we knew him first!”
