Yolonda Youngs

Dr. Youngs specializes in environmental and cultural geography, national parks and protected areas, public lands, environmental justice, social science GIS, conservation of natural resources, environmental policy and land management, and field methods. Her regional specialties are the U.S. West and Europe.

Her publications appear in national, international, and regional journals including the Geographical Review, GeoHumanities, Environmental History, Journal of Teaching and Learning Technology, and Society and Natural Resources: An International Journal. Dr. Youngs has over 20 publications in refereed journal articles, books, book chapters as well as academic book reviews, scientific technical reports, and scholarly essays. 

Current and ongoing research includes projects focused on Long Term Environmental Monitoring (LTEM) using repeat photography and intensive field studies in western U.S. national parks, protected areas, public lands, and UNESCO sites in rivers, lakes, coastal and marine areas, high desert, and mountain environments  (Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Channel Islands NP,  sites in Southern California); tracing environmental management in Grand Canyon NP; and developing climate resiliency and heritage preservation projects in UNESCO World Heritage sites in the western U.S and in Europe (Venice, Italy - Venetian Lagoon WHS). 

Conference Papers: Dr. Youngs regularly presents her research at academic conferences including the American Association of Geographers (AAG), International Geographical Union (IGU), Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG), and the interdisciplinary conferences.  She is active in the CSU COAST network in California with her research in coastal and marine protected areas. She regularly presents her research to public audiences at park visitor centers, libraries, museums, bookstores, and community centers. 

Books: Her second book is a solo-authored project titled Framing Nature: The Making of an American Icon at the Grand Canyon (2024: University of Nebraska Press). It explores one hundred years of environmental management and policy, popular imagery, tourism, environmental justice, and cultural heritage in the Greater Grand Canyon Region (in print production with the University of Nebraska Press). Her first book is The American Environment Revisited: Environmental Historical Geographies of the United States (2018, edited with Geoffrey Buckley, Rowman & Littlefield Press).

For a current list of publications, please click on the “publications” link on this webpage.

Awards and honors for her teaching and research are recognized at university and national levels including the Outstanding Researcher at Idaho State University (2018), the Apple, Inc. Distinguished Educator Award (for innovative uses of mobile apps and iPads in the classroom), and the International Geographical Union Scholar award from the Association of American Geographers. In 2022, her service as the AAG Pacific Coast Regional Division Councilor (2019-2022) representing geography programs in 8 western U.S states received a special honor for service by the Association of American Geographers.   

Her research is funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Park Service, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, National Endowment for the Humanities, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, and the Association of American Geographers. She is an active researcher and PI with the CESU network (Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit) – a national network of federal agencies, tribes, academic institutions, state and local governments, nongovernmental conservation organizations, and other partners working together to provide timely research to inform public lands resource stewardship.

From 2016 to 2021, the U.S. National Park Service (US NPS) funded a six-year research project to study the cultural and environmental geography of outdoor recreation in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. The work traces the environmental management and stewardship of the Upper Snake River and Teton Mountain Range from 1950 to the present day through the experiences of scenic rafting guides, NPS river rangers, and NPS mountaineering rangers and the cultural landscapes of the park.

Many of Dr. Youngs’ projects include digital geospatial research and community outreach. Working with collaborative and interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students, Dr. Youngs’ has created GIS-based online StoryMaps, 3D visualizations of museum objects, a mobile app for Yellowstone National Parks cultural landscape history, websites, and lead participatory GIS projects of river stewardship and community engagement. 

Academic and Professional Networks: Dr. Youngs is active as a scholar and leader in the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG). She engages in international collaborations through the Royal Geographic Society (RGS), the International Geographical Union (IGU), and Association of European Geographical Societies (EUGEO). She is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICONOS), and World Heritage USA.

Teaching Interests: Dr. Youngs is a broadly trained geographer with a passion for communicating geographic and environmental principles to students.  She promotes an active learning environment and community-based class projects for students through in-class discussions and out-of-class activities, individual and group projects, and field modules.  Her courses integrate contemporary examples from local and national events, new and emerging technologies, and a variety of teaching strategies and modalities aimed at creating connections for students between their personal knowledge, their life experiences, and their intellectual curiosities.