environmental/ecological nostalgia, reconnecting people with landscapes left behind
as well as forging new connections to place; and (d) family memorial spaces where
gardens honor and memorialize family members and provide opportunities for
intergenerational linkages. Gardens enabled immigrants to engage with, personalize,
and experience their new environment in culturally significant ways.
Once a shadow activity, urban foraging is regarded as a local food solution but
also is the source of meaningful nature connections (Poe et al. 2013). Urban forests,
parks, vacant lots, and private yards contribute a variety of wild foods, medicines,
and materials for the well-being of urban residents. Collecting wild plants and fungi
in urban forests is a persistent subsistence and livelihood practice for many people.
Yet gatherers are also motivated by many nonmaterial purposes: maintaining cultural practices, sharing knowledge, building community, engaging in spiritual practices, connecting with nature, supporting stewardship, having fun and recreating, and
developing alternative food and health systems. Foragers often voice strong environmental stewardship ethics and a commitment to sustainable harvesting
techniques.
Notably, the stories and studies that focus on deeper individual connections to
nature have not placed these bonds in the larger, sociopolitical context of urban
planning. Meanwhile, the community planning literature emphasizes participation
and empowerment but often overlooks emotional connections to place (Manzo and
Perkins 2006).
8.6.2 Sacred and Stewardship
Stewardship and sacredness can be linked. Land management can integrate ecological and cultural dynamics. The combination of sensory inputs, allowance of space
and time for mindfulness, and the substantial benefits of passive encounters with
nearby nature may reinforce commitments to sustainability and lead to the construction of landscape meanings. Studies of post-9/11 tragedies in the United States
revealed that people who actively stewarded memorial sites gave reasons other
than religious rites or consecration to describe sacredness (Svendsen and Campbell
2010). Some described how care was a process that conferred meaning. Others noted
that the presence of certain natural features and the seasonal cycles of nature signaled
sacredness.
A sacred site may hold innate meaning and solace for users. Social interactions,
including stewardship, restoration, and teaching, serve to instill sacredness in landscapes. Compared to a one-time event of public dedication or celebration, repeated
use of a space for reflection, relaxation, and remembrance makes a place sacred. At
this time, there is little understanding of the long-term dynamics of this people-toplace interplay, and how meanings or interpretations of sacred may shift with time
(Fig. 8.4).
8 From Sanitary to Sustainable to Sacred: Metro Nature Experiences and. . .
151
as well as forging new connections to place; and (d) family memorial spaces where
gardens honor and memorialize family members and provide opportunities for
intergenerational linkages. Gardens enabled immigrants to engage with, personalize,
and experience their new environment in culturally significant ways.
Once a shadow activity, urban foraging is regarded as a local food solution but
also is the source of meaningful nature connections (Poe et al. 2013). Urban forests,
parks, vacant lots, and private yards contribute a variety of wild foods, medicines,
and materials for the well-being of urban residents. Collecting wild plants and fungi
in urban forests is a persistent subsistence and livelihood practice for many people.
Yet gatherers are also motivated by many nonmaterial purposes: maintaining cultural practices, sharing knowledge, building community, engaging in spiritual practices, connecting with nature, supporting stewardship, having fun and recreating, and
developing alternative food and health systems. Foragers often voice strong environmental stewardship ethics and a commitment to sustainable harvesting
techniques.
Notably, the stories and studies that focus on deeper individual connections to
nature have not placed these bonds in the larger, sociopolitical context of urban
planning. Meanwhile, the community planning literature emphasizes participation
and empowerment but often overlooks emotional connections to place (Manzo and
Perkins 2006).
8.6.2 Sacred and Stewardship
Stewardship and sacredness can be linked. Land management can integrate ecological and cultural dynamics. The combination of sensory inputs, allowance of space
and time for mindfulness, and the substantial benefits of passive encounters with
nearby nature may reinforce commitments to sustainability and lead to the construction of landscape meanings. Studies of post-9/11 tragedies in the United States
revealed that people who actively stewarded memorial sites gave reasons other
than religious rites or consecration to describe sacredness (Svendsen and Campbell
2010). Some described how care was a process that conferred meaning. Others noted
that the presence of certain natural features and the seasonal cycles of nature signaled
sacredness.
A sacred site may hold innate meaning and solace for users. Social interactions,
including stewardship, restoration, and teaching, serve to instill sacredness in landscapes. Compared to a one-time event of public dedication or celebration, repeated
use of a space for reflection, relaxation, and remembrance makes a place sacred. At
this time, there is little understanding of the long-term dynamics of this people-toplace interplay, and how meanings or interpretations of sacred may shift with time
(Fig. 8.4).
8 From Sanitary to Sustainable to Sacred: Metro Nature Experiences and. . .
151