Jaap is a professor of Planning and Natural Resources, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Society, and the Director of Environmental Science. He has a Ph.D. in regional planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and a MS in Environmental Science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Born in a small farmhouse and having grown up in a small rural place Jaap is really interested in rural places and how to maintain rural places as rural places rather than as places that are waiting to become urban. His current research is focused on how rural places can maintain their own unique character in the face of development pressure and increased external pressure.
Jaap teaches courses about community planning, sustainable communities and rural planning issues. He frequently gives presentations about current population change in Idaho and the consequences of this change for communities throughout the state. He is the founding co-chair of APA Idaho’s Ag Chat, a group of planners and other stakeholders from throughout Idaho that meets monthly to discuss emerging planning issues in rural communities.
