Volunteer Meanings in the Making of Place

Volunteers have an impact on the places and landscapes in which they work. They create personalized place meanings based on experience—from the activities in which they engage, the institutions they are working for, or some combination of both. The relationships between their place meaning and identity creation are related, and have consequences for the conversations they have with visitors and managers regarding their sense of place. The place meanings described by the Streamwatch volunteers of Alaska’s Russian River are identified, and portrayed as “place making” by directly changing the landscape through restoration work, and communicated by their teaching of managers, visitors, and other stakeholders.