6 PM AZ time (5 PM PST, 6  PM MST, 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST)
View Channel

Based on her award-winning book, Framing Nature: The Creation of an American Icon at the Grand Canyon, Dr. Yolonda Youngs will discuss the results of over 15 years of archival research and fieldwork including rim-to-river hikes and a three-week raft trip down the Colorado River. Her research reveals how the Grand Canyon became an iconic symbol of nature that shaped national policies on environmental management, water resources, wildlife conservation, park visitation, and environmental justice. She will provide a visually rich presentation including rare postcards, photographs, and maps of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Dr. Youngs’ examination of 150 years of thousands of popular photographs, postcards, and maps provides surprising insights about the locations represented in the imagery, the influences of imagery on park management and public lands stewardship, and the rich biodiversity of Grand Canyon flora and fauna.

Speaker Background
Dr. Yolonda Youngs is an author, environmental scientist, and professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at California State University San Bernardino. Her expertise is in Long Term Environmental Monitoring (LTEM) in national parks and international protected areas, conservation of natural resources, environmental geography, outdoor recreation, and GIS. She teaches courses on national parks and public lands, environmental sustainability, conservation and natural resources, and field methods. Dr. Youngs has written or co-authored two books and over thirty journal articles and scientific reports featuring her research across the U.S. National Park Service system. Her second book Framing Nature: The Creation of an American Icon at the Grand Canyon (2024) won the prestigious 2025 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize from the American Association of Geographers, one of the highest awards in the discipline. Her first book is The American Environment Revisited: Environmental Historical Geographies of the United States (2019, with Dr. Geoffrey Buckley).  She maintains field research sites in Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Channel Islands national parks.

Dr. Youngs received her PhD in Geography from Arizona State University; M.S. from Montana State University in Earth Sciences; and B.A. from Florida State University in Anthropology and Archaeology.