The term “sense of belonging” is often deemed sentimental and excluded in formal land-use strategies. This research project demonstrates that intangible qualities are a priority for the residents of Ottawa creating urban green spaces and residents in Bristol Bay against the construction of Pebble Mine, comparing the reflections about land across two different contexts. Communities in Bristol Bay, AK, USA and Ottawa, ON, Canada demonstrate that belonging is deeply rooted in relationships with land and how these ties inform the struggles involving access to land, healthy environments and shared resources. The project draws on the perspectives of civilians who have organized land-use strategies and interconnectedness with human relations to land through culture, well-being and belonging to demonstrate the relevance of these terms for land-use planning and policy. In Canada multiculturalism creates cities like Ottawa that are celebrated for having populations of diverse individuals across cultural affiliations and backgrounds. However, the state Alaska is defined as “the frontier for the last wilderness”, defining Bristol Bay as a landscape where neoliberal policies simultaneously disenfranchise and empower communities in a convoluted process involving various Indigenous ethnicities and colonial descendants. Thus, the contexts share a dominant need for the intangible to create strong identities. The scope of the research in Alaska focuses on descriptions of Bristol Bay against Pebble Mine and the effect on wild salmon fisheries operating as lucrative extractive industries that move to action when threatened. In Ottawa, the scope involves the perspectives of founding organizers in pollinator and food community gardens in an increasingly municipally regulated landscape. Ultimately, this research is a comparative investigation into alternative imaginations against narratives that exploit nature as resources and commodities, sold for profit and endangering well-being when concepts of environmental justice and land sovereignty are emerging in urban cities like Ottawa and rural Alaskan communities surrounding Bristol Bay.