ASU honors college faculty member awarded for conservation advocacy
Alex Young, associate teaching professor in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU, has been named the Arizona Wildlife Federation's 2024 Citizen Advocate of the Year. Courtesy photo
Alex Young has loved hunting, fishing and hiking since his childhood in Oklahoma, where he was taught to be a responsible conservationist by his grandfather.
His grandfather, a fan of the renowned wildlife ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold, would be proud then, to learn that Young, an associate teaching professor in Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, has received the 2024 Aldo Leopold Conservation Award from the Arizona Wildlife Federation (AWF).
The AWF recognizes significant contributions individuals and organizations have made to Arizona conservation by annually presenting Aldo Leopold Conservation Awards in several categories.
The awards are named for Leopold, who introduced the concept of the “land ethic,” which calls for an ethical and caring relationship between people and nature.
Young, who serves on the board for the Arizona chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, was named the 2024 Citizen Advocate of the Year by the AWF, primarily for his advocacy for conservation of Native ancestral lands and national monuments in Arizona.
"I am so honored to be recognized by the Arizona Wildlife Federation for this award, especially because, in my work with them, I've come to know what an amazing community of deserving conservationists we have here in Arizona,” said Young, who is a scholar of the literature and culture of the American West.
Young said this year he had several opportunities, largely thanks to the Arizona Wildlife Federation, to advocate for Native lands by working with the movement to establish the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
That movement was a tribal-led effort that brought together Arizonans of all backgrounds to protect the ancestral homelands of multiple tribes near the Grand Canyon that are vital to protecting the Colorado watershed and are cherished by multiple different outdoor recreation communities, he said.
“In my research on the cultural history of the American West, I study the complex and often painful histories that made those lands what they are today. In my work to advocate for those lands, I drew on both my experience as an outdoorsman and my knowledge as a scholar to speak to communities that often have a tough time finding common cause — and that was really inspiring and fulfilling," Young said.
As part of his national monument and land conservation advocacy, Young appeared in an AWF video and authored opinion columns in the Arizona Daily Star and The Arizona Republic.
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