Place Attachment and Meaning: Nurturing Nature Relationships

Citation

Wolf, K.L. and Collier, C. 2023. Place Attachment and Meaning: Nurturing Nature Relationships: Review of Scholarly Literature with Practical Application. New Jersey, Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, 16 pp.

Link to file

The places people love, and the meaning those places hold, matter more than most people realize — they support both mental health and the bonds that hold communities together. Restoration ecology is the practice of restoring land to a healthy, natural state, with working ecosystems, good habitat, and the benefits nature provides. It draws on technical knowledge of soil, plants, and how ecosystems develop over time, and it is increasingly used in cities.

A separate field of research has shown how important access to green space is for human health. Studies consistently find that time in parks, gardens, and urban forests can improve mental health, support physical health, and bring communities closer together. City planners are paying more attention to this, especially in neighborhoods that have historically had less green space.

These two fields — ecological restoration and nature and health — rarely connect. But restored natural areas can also become places that people love and feel connected to, which adds to their value. This essay explains what place attachment is and why it matters for health, how it develops and becomes part of a person’s identity, and how restoration projects can be planned and managed to help people build those connections.

Abstract

Place attachment and meaning are important, though rarely acknowledged, contributors to personal mental health and community cohesion. Restoration ecology is generally intentional programming and field activity to restore land to a desired state of ecological function, habitat, and ecosystem services sourcing. Restoration ecology efforts are typically informed by technical aspects of environmental remediation, soils, landscape horticulture and ecosystem succession. Such projects are increasingly being implemented in urban settings.

A separate research and technical application realm highlights the importance of greenspace, parks, and urban forests access to promote and support human health. Extensive evidence indicates that green space encounters can improve mental health, are linked to physical health response, and can support community-level social cohesion. Urban planners and leaders are increasingly interested in enhancing the amount and quality of greenspace in communities, particularly in underserved communities that, due to historic legacies that have limited green space quantity and quality.

The fields and practices of ecological restoration and nature and health rarely intersect. Place attachment is but one human dimension of how restoration sites can also become restorative environments. This essay first provides explanation of the notions of place attachment and meaning, and their importance regarding human health. The next major section will then address what is known about how place attachment develops and becomes a part of one’s identity, and why this is important. A final section will then turn to practical recommendations for how ecological restoration projects can be planned, installed, and managed in ways that can offer opportunities to nurture place attachment.