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LiKEN Program Updates, Spring 2025 At LiKEN, our work is rooted in relationships to place, to people, and to the knowledge that connects them. This spring, we’ve been honored to walk alongside communities across Central Appalachia and beyond, listening, learning, and growing together. From creative youth storytelling to deepened disaster resilience, from forest livelihoods to land justice and water equity, each of our program areas has continued to nurture new partnerships and possibilities. Here’s a glimpse into what we’ve been up to. Stories of Place Honoring Roots and Growing Branches in Martin County Last year's Martin County Stories of Place residency program in 2024 took place in an English 10 classroom at Martin County High School focused on “Where I’m From” poems (inspired by the poem of the same name by George Ella Lyon) that represent their story and upbringing. LiKEN recently brought together all their drawings and poetry into a hardcover book and eBook presented to the students and the school as a keepsake. All of the Martin County High School students who participated in last year's Martin County Stories of Place residency program. Photo by Lauren Traitz of Renew Appalachia . Martin County Stories of Place Residency is on the rise for 2025, including connecting with different organizations, camps, and even pop up story circles throughout the summer to help kids stay active, creative, and connected to their community, their stories, and nature. Madison Mooney from LiKEN (center), presented a book of the students’ artwork and poetry to the  Principal Michelle Harless of Martin County High School (left), and the 10th grade English teacher Samantha Maynard (right), who allowed us to come into her classroom to make this residency happen. Photo by Lauren Traitz of Renew Appalachia . Forest Livelihoods Spring is in full swing in the forests of Central Appalachia. Syrup and fire season draw to a close as trees leaf out and the forest floor erupts with spring ephemerals. This annual renewal is especially significant for LiKEN in 2025 as we welcome back several furloughed employees to the Community Wealth program, and as the communities we serve continue to recover from significant flood events. Our CECs and river partners on the “Community Wealth from Healthy Rivers and Forests” project have been working directly in their communities helping residents muck out their homes, get supplies, and navigate resources. We are documenting the response and recovery to the flood and the dramatic impact to the Tug Fork and Kentucky Rivers. We hosted our second FSA workshop, this time in Lee County. At these events, forest landowners can access the documents they need to get a number from the Farm Services Agency, opening the door to cost-share and technical support for conservation, management, and production on their land. We also had representatives from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Cooperative Extension, and the Community Farm Alliance (CFA) on hand to advise attendees about  their services. Look for more FSA workshops in the coming months. We will be co-hosting a workshop on making value-added products in Leslie County with representatives from Kentucky Proud and Appalachia Proud. There are more trainings coming soon to a forest near you! Topics include site assessment for forest farming, managing forests for wildlife, and riparian buffers that can help mitigate flood damage and provide food and income. LiKEN team members at the Beattyville Cooperative Extension Office at our clinic to help landowners sign up for farm numbers with the Farm Services Agency. (L to R: Steve Kruger, Matt Sparks, Deborah Thompson, Tina Johnson, and Sandra Hunt) We were gifted with country-cured bacon to take home from a Cooperative Extension demonstration project.) Our Community Engagement Coordinators (CECs) continue to document the values of Central Appalachian forests: how they provide wood and non-timber forest products, support tourism, conserve soil, provide habitat for wildlife, and protect our watersheds. LiKEN staff are currently seeking workers from forest-related businesses, technical service providers, and passionate and engaged anglers, root-diggers, hunters, naturalists, and river rats about the threats and opportunities they see to the rivers and forests they love.  We are also looking for landowners and property heirs who have at least 10 acres of forest and are interested in growing or managing edible, medicinal, or decorative forest plants and fungi, actively managing forests for wildlife or recreation, or who may be interested in selling credits for the carbon their forests are storing. We will be helping qualified landowners meet the goals for their forests. This includes help navigating technical assistance and cost-share programs, creating forest management plans, and helping assess the potential for forest farming on their properties.  Land & Revenues Although winter came with many challenges, including a storm that ravaged Central Appalachia and a funding pause that withdrew federal investment from the region, the Land & Revenues team at LIKEN Knowledge made incredible strides during the chilly season. Back in October, we hired our first Family Assistance Coordinator, Sandra Hunt, to work directly with clients enrolled in our heirs’ property assistance program, the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center (AHPC). Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center Sandra and Kevin Slovinsky, Director of Land & Revenues, worked hard to stand up protocols for intaking new clients and solidifying AHPC’s package of services. We are proud to announce that the general public can now easily schedule an intake appointment on the webpage for the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center. If you have inherited an ownership interest for property in our service area (see map below), you can make an intake appointment here . We have really enjoyed working with those who we have had the opportunity to help and joyfully look forward to each new appointment. Appalachian Travelling Will-Writing Clinic We are also excited to share that LiKEN will re-launch the Appalachian Traveling Will-Writing Clinic for a second year. From spring to fall, the Land & Revenues team will be holding one Will Clinic a month in a different eastern Kentucky county each month. Preceding the Will Clinic, Kevin Slovinsky and attorney Joe Childers (Childers & Baxter PLLC) will offer a free community presentation on estate planning and heirs’ property. You can see the dates of upcoming Will Clinics and Heirs’ Property Info Sessions below. We look forward to soon presenting an extended set of tour dates, going up to November.  Knowledge Sharing LiKENeers Kevin Slovinsky and Jacob Johnson, a University of Kentucky history graduate student who worked at LiKEN as part of the UK Appalachian Center’s AppalachiaCorps program, are co-authors in an academic article published in the March edition of Environmental Research: Energy.  Titled “Afterlives of coal: land and transition dynamics in Central Appalachia,”  the article looks at carbon forestry offsets, solar energy projects, and prisons located on reclaimed surface mines, drawing connections between these projects and the “legacy actors who have long dominated local and regional extraction regimes.” The authors argue that “the success or failure of broad-based transition policies depends largely on place-based dynamics rooted in land: who controls the land, who has access to land, who benefits from investments in land, and how public revenues flow from land.” LiKEN played a key role in compiling data on land ownership, which was utilized in the section on the solar energy projects. You can freely access the digital version of the article here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2753-3751/adb1ea . While contributing to scholarly articles, the Land & Revenues team has also been participating in several wonderful in-person conferences. In late-February, Kevin Slovinsky and attorney Joe Childers gave a presentation at the Eastern Kentucky Farmers’ Conference on “Strategies for Preventing, Resolving, and Using Heirs’ Property.”  This presentation, the PowerPoint slides for which can be found on our resource page here , challenged the notion that heirs’ property is unusable. Using clear examples, Slovinsky and Childers were able to delineate between what people can and cannot do with their heirs’ property without incurring legal liability. The two presenters were joined at the conference by LiKENeers Sandra Hunt (Family Assistance Coordinator), McKensi Gilliam (Harlan county Community Engagement Coordinator), and Matthew Sparks (Leslie county Community Engagement Coordinator). The wonderful event, which brought together farmers, non-profits, and government workers, was organized by our dear friends at the Community Farm Alliance, Kentucky Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, and many more.  In mid-March, LiKENeers travelled to the 2025 Appalachian Studies Association Conference and presented alongside an extraordinary set of scholars and activists. Kevin Slovinsky organized a panel titled “Land & Livelihoods: Mapping Dispossession and Resistance” that included presentations about four different projects. All of the presenters positioned land as a crucial puzzle piece to understanding the politics of our time, but they approached this issue—land—through an incredibly diverse set of lenses. LiKENeers Kevin Slovinsky and Jacob Johnson presented the findings of a draft land ownership report of Martin county, Kentucky. Embodying the ethos of “place matters,” the Martin County Land Report zooms into a single eastern Kentucky county and captures a moment in time with a mission to broadly support justice-oriented grassroots community organizing. Lindsay Shade and Sylvia Ryerson analyzed the siting of prisons in Appalachia, drawing relationships across time and space to inform activist movements in the region. Dylan Harris shared the findings of his research on the carbon credit market in Appalachia. His approach to land positions it within a complex market that commodifies the ecosystem benefits of forests, connecting Appalachian landowners (both commercial and private individuals) to massive corporations like Disney and Microsoft. Last but not least, Zane Hornbeck-Buseman and Savannah Reese of the public-interest land bank West Virginia Land Stewardship Corporation (WVLSC) demonstrated their Property Abandonment Reclamation Tool (PART). A property visualization/mapping software developed by and for West Virginian land banks, PART reveals how patterns of land ownership, acquisition, and dispossession impact people's ability to remain on and utilize the land… getting at the very relationship people have with the land. Read what Kevin Slovinsky said when opening the session: “About forty-five years ago, the Appalachian Land Ownership Taskforce achieved something incredible: they utilized participatory action research methods to conduct a colossal study of land ownership and taxation across 80 counties in Appalachia. We don’t have anything like that to reveal today. However, what we do have reflects the threads of an ongoing, decentralized land study that is made up of dozens of different projects. They each take unique approaches to land, capturing the complexity of the land matrix. I hope that, sometime in the future, we can look back on today as a major step towards weaving that vision into a broader tapestry, a vision which I am sure many of you share.” In early April, Kevin represented LiKEN at a convening in Atlanta on heirs’ property research ethics, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Kevin joined Danyelle O’Hara, Chief Projects Officer at the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (CHPP), on a final panel session. Danyelle and Kevin spoke on the partnership between LiKEN and CHPP and how research shapes their programming. Kevin explained how quantitative research on the geographic occurrence of heirs’ property has told us where to hold Will Clinics. Our qualitative research, which includes many short interviews conducted at Will Clinics, has given us incredible insight into how cultural, political, and historical factors shape the cause and effects of heirs’ property. Kevin encouraged researchers to engage impacted people not as subjects, but as expert participants in the research process.  In June, Kevin Slovinsky will speak at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Policy Summit alongside attorney Mavis Gragg, co-founder of HeirShares.  Overall, the spring 2025 is looking to be a good season for the Land & Revenues team at LiKEN Knowledge!  Water Collaboratory Winter brought significant challenges, rendering LiKEN's water work timely like never before. Both Harlan county and Martin county experienced severe flooding not once, but twice, heightening the urgency for disaster response and coordination as well as resilience-building efforts and proactive water management strategies.  In the aftermath of February floods, LiKEENeers were out in the communities we serve helping residents, cleaning homes, and demonstrating in action the commitment that is needed for building resilient communities.  Winter has also been a time for sharing knowledge and facilitating dialogue on the knowledge products we have been creating, based on our ongoing work on Harlan county’s and Martin county’s water and wastewater systems. The Harlan County Water Resilience Toolkit was shared within the community through spring. Harlan County’s CEC McKensi Johnson introduced the toolkit to different residents and was able to receive feedback. This feedback has also been helpful in finding what parts of the toolkit need improvement. Since sharing the toolkit LiKEN has already heard success stories that show how the toolkit has helped inform some residents.  On March 3, Madison and McKensi presented on the Water Climate and Equity Project to a Geography class on Water Management taught by LiKENeer Bethani Turley at Portland State University in Oregon. The students made many meaningful connections between their readings and the experiences and information shared by our two CECs. Water Climate Equity  From left to right: Deborah Thompson , Impact Director; Natasha Moore, Community Engagement Coordinator from Martin County, eastern Kentucky; Madison Mooney, Community Care Coordinator; McKensi Johnson, Community Engagement Coordinator from Harlan County; Maria Bareli , LiKEN Commons Governance Fellow appeared via videoconference to join and present.  The LiKEN Knowledge Water Pressure Team attended this year's 2025 Appalachian Studies Association conference in Cookeville, TN, to share the hows and whats of our long-term water work. Our roundtable discussion, titled “ Creating Change for Resilient Community Water Systems in Central Appalachia,” focused on our goals, objectives, and findings of the Water Climate Equity project. We shared our methods for   creating spaces of mutual/social learning and action   and presented our key takeaways on how water inequalities are related to extractive developmental pathways  and how different developmental pathways can create different types of water systems.   Drawing from our community-engaged research   in Martin and Harlan Counties, we shared our learnings about the water infrastructure of these two counties, and the impacts of extreme weather events on community and infrastructure, as well as about the relationship of community members with their water and water systems.  We also shared our Toolkits for Community Engagement and Water Resilience in the Face of Climate Change.  We identified information and knowledge sharing as important ways to keep communication open between residents and their water and wastewater systems, which led us to work with residents, technical assistance providers, and water system personnel. In our toolkits you will find information on water and wastewater on the community, state, and on the federal level for Harlan County residents. There is information on how you can get involved with stream sampling within your community, with sections that have information on drinking water systems, wastewater systems, household system maintenance, pollution, extreme weather, water system stressors, The Clean Water Act, and emergency contacts. There is also a glossary that defines any terms used in the toolkit that may not be a common term in every household. All of this information is tailored down to the local level for the communities in Harlan County. During early stages of the WCE project, we found that residents needed information on their systems that were not easy to find and they sometimes didn’t know what questions to ask. The collaborative process of creating these toolkits, what information is in there, including  the resources we have utilized (e.g. local knowledge, state and federal resources etc.), and the feedback mechanisms we created to ensure that each toolkits is constantly updated and aligned to local needs and assets.    Finally, we presented our insights  on how change can occur, discussing potential leverage points that could disrupt the vicious cycles we are finding in our research on the water and wastewater systems of these two Central Appalachian counties.  Future plans from learnings at the ASA discussion and resident feedback:  There is an urgency in focusing on  emergency preparedness and ensuring that information needed in emergencies is easily accessible in our Water Resilience Toolkits.   There is a strong interest in our Water Resilience Toolkits from people working in other Appalachian communities, which we plan to address in the future by creating a  “how-to guide” for making a   toolkit tailored to their own community needs and assets. Kentucky Watershed Alliance Virtual Workshop Presentation On March 25, Betsy and Madison presented “How to Create a Non-Profit for Watershed Management & Beyond: Reflections on LiKEN’s Path from 2015 to 2025” for a virtual workshop sponsored by the Kentucky Watershed Alliance (KWA). We have been solidifying partnerships with groups such as KWA and the Kentucky Watershed Watch that focus on source water. Creating a link between source water and drinking water is an important niche LiKEN can fill between the two normally siloed areas. Mountain Drinking Water Project  Madison Mooney, LiKEN Knowledge’s Community Care Coordinator, presented a poster on the Mountain Drinking Water Project at the 2025 Appalachian Studies Association Conference. Madison Mooney has been working on this project with the support of LiKEN Knowledge, University of Kentucky, and (list other partners if needed). This project is in its last year of community members out of Martin County and Letcher County testing their tap water for disinfection byproducts. We are currently working towards the planning phases of hosting community meetings to share the results. Stay tuned for future updates!  To learn more, visit   LiKEN’s website  or the   University of Kentucky’s partner page . Disaster Resilience At LiKEN, disaster resilience means more than just bouncing back. It’s about building forward with care, community, and deep respect for the land and its people. From co-hosting powerful gatherings that honor Indigenous knowledge and place-based learning to co-convening national efforts on data governance and climate adaptation, our work in this area is grounded in relationships and guided by justice. Here are a few highlights from this season’s efforts to support communities as they respond to and prepare for the challenges of our changing world. Celebrating Restorative Relations We uplifted intersectionality across movements and honored relationships, people, places, and more during Celebrating Restorative Relations: Connections between climate resilience, Indigenous rights, and land and water rematriation,   on March 6th in the traditional homelands of the Chumash people, known as UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Santa Barbara in California. The event, which included a morning workshop and evening community-building gathering, was co-hosted by LiKEN in collaboration with the CREW Center for Restorative Environmental Work , the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Climate Justice Working Group ,  the UCSB American Indian & Indigenous Collective , and the SPACE Su’nan Protection, Art & Cultural Education . Conversations were centered in understanding and amplifying connections between Land Back movements and politics, processes of reciprocity, and resilient ecosystems—as well as the importance of decommissioning and dam removal within energy transitions, among other responses to global climate change.  Featured panelists included Indigenous and allied movement builders, practitioners, and organizers (see flyer to the left for more details on each of these amazing people) who highlighted the importance of collective actions of reviving relationships of care and connectedness between peoples, lands, waters, and multispecies kin. Honoring place-based learning and traditional ecological knowledges—especially noting how important it is to appreciate the unique experiences, traits, and knowledges that each person and place has to offer, and knowing and understanding their traditions, language, and more—were also uplifted as crucial to being able to build relationships with intentionality and care for how learnings are shared with one another to keep the work moving forward. The morning workshop, held on the UCSB campus to connect with students and the broader campus community, ended with calls to action from the panelists which included:  Being a good guest  on lands you are not from and making time to learn more about the communities you are a part of; Uplifting youth voices  and teaching them from early on about Indigenous history and histories of their communities; Always centering the community and placing them first, asking what you can do for the community as opposed to proposing what you can do for them; Understanding that relationships and trust take time to build, that patience and empathy for one another are key factors; and  To show up and continue showing up, especially as allies, because oftentimes this work takes years and continuous support is needed. The evening gathering, held in the SPACE with a smaller group of guests in a more intimate setting, allowed the opportunity to take a deeper dive into some of the morning conversations which resulted in wonderful messages uplifting the crucial importance of peacekeeping work, treating everyone with respect, of knowing the why and how actions (such as cultural fires) are done, and the understanding that no one’s knowledge is above others. Above all, what was highly uplifted was the need to come together, invite everyone into these conversations, and create safe spaces where people can be vulnerable with each other and share and heal from hurt, trauma, and sadness in order to truly be able to recognize and support one another. Overall, both events served as an opportunity to celebrate ongoing acts of resistance and restoration, with one of the other goals in holding both gatherings in communities close to one another (the UCSB campus located in what is known as Goleta, and in the SPACE located in downtown Santa Barbara) to be rooted in awareness of how place and community interact in different contexts. Special thank yous and gratitude to Tristan Partridge and Javiera Barandiaran for coordinating the morning workshop at UCSB, and MariaElena Lopez for opening up the SPACE to welcome us for the evening community gathering ; to all the wonderful panelists Sarah Barger, Sybil Diver, MariaElena Lopez, and Margaret McMurtrey for your time and shared wisdom; and to all those who attended for making time to join us in these crucial moments. We cannot wait to continue building on these connections and relationships into the future! Heather Lazrus Symposium The 2025 Heather Lazrus Symposium at the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) Annual Meeting: “Convergence Science: Indigenous Weather, Water and Climate Knowledge, Systems, Practices and Communities” The following was adapted from a blog-post in the lead up to the Symposium, which can be read in full here: https://blog.ametsoc.org/2024/12/23/be-there-the-heather-lazrus-symposium/   Since 2010, Dr. Heather Lazrus, co-founder of the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, was a key life-force behind initiatives at the AMS Annual Meeting working to bring to the forefront of the geoscience enterprise the importance of recognizing and respecting Indigenous science, knowledge systems, and ways of knowing and understanding. To honor Dr. Lazrus, who passed on from cancer in February 2023, the 105th Annual AMS Meeting, in collaboration with The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences (which Heather co-founded), hosted the AMS 2025 Heather Lazrus Symposium, “Convergence Science: Indigenous Weather, Water and Climate Knowledge, Systems, Practices and Communities” on January 13, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This named Symposium honored and continued the leadership of Dr. Heather Lazrus in moving AMS and the Nation towards advancing the weaving together of Indigenous knowledges and sciences and other atmospheric and earth sciences.  “The urgent threat posed by our climate crisis necessitates innovative actions. Innovation is an opportunity to look beyond Earth sciences to solutions in other knowledge systems and, in doing so, to support the rising voices of those who have been historically marginalized.”  – Lazrus et al., 2022 Image: Lazrus at the 4th Annual Rising Voices Workshop, held in 2016 on Hawai‘i Island. Photo courtesy of the Rising Voices Center. The term “convergence science” is often used in the context of bringing together physical, biological, and social sciences; recognizing Indigenous perspectives further emphasizes the artificial nature of boundaries between sciences and ways of knowing. The Rising Voices, Changing Coasts (RVCC) Hub  emphasizes that convergence science asserts the deep relationality of life, of the planet, of mother earth, of the affirmation that we are all related. The Lazrus Symposium hosted a Presidential Session with the RVCC’s Louisiana Hub, during which local Tribal leaders, elders, and partnering scientists shared their stories of weaving together Indigenous and other science knowledge for place-based convergence science and community adaptation. The Symposium also included presentations from early career Indigenous scholars on emerging Indigenous innovations related to weather, water, and climate. A luncheon was held in honor of Lazrus, featuring a special screening of “Everything Has a Spirit” and a conversation with filmmaker Ava Hamilton (Arapaho). The Symposium also included discussions on how to improve scientific partnerships among federal agencies and Tribal governments and communities, and presentations by Indigenous scientists on fostering intercultural dialogue and respectful engagement. The space was held for those who have long been engaged in convergence science and/or intercultural collaborations and for those learning about these ideas for the first time. The Symposium welcomed the AMS community into this ongoing conversation to co-create culturally relevant and actionable scientific knowledge and actions that increase climate resilience and support healthy, thriving communities today and for future generations. Special thanks to the Symposium organizers (Julie Maldonado, Stephanie Herring, Eileen Shea, Diamond Tachera, Katie Jones, Robbie Hood, Tim Schneider, Jen Henderson, and Carlos Martinez) and all of the speakers, including Noelani Villa, Kristina Leilani Black, D. Nākoa Farrant, Elder Rosina Philippe, Elder Theresa Dardar, Elder Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, Chief Deme Naquin, Jr., Alessandra Jerolleman, Melissa Moulton, R. Eugene Turner, Suzanne Van Cooten, Marie Schaefer, Amanda Roberts, Megan Taylor, Paulette Blanchard, Corinne Arrington Salter, Mike Durglo, Crystal Stiles, Katie Jones, Jeff Weber, Dan Wildcat, and Tim Schneider for their time, energy, dedication, and shared knowledge. Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Louisiana Hub retreat The Rising Voices, Changing Coasts (RVCC) Hub , led by Haskell Indian Nations University (PI Dr. Daniel Wildcat), is a coastal research project that weaves together Traditional wisdom and modern knowledge to understand the interactions between natural, human-built, and social systems in coastal populated environments. RVCC is working to improve our understanding of how climate impacts four diverse coastal regions—Alaska (Arctic), Louisiana (Gulf of Mexico), Hawai‘i (Pacific Islands), and Puerto Rico (Caribbean Islands)—and to provide local communities with the information they need to take action and protect their lifeways.   The Louisiana Hub focused on place-based learning during the retreat.. As part of RVCC, from January 9-12, the Louisiana Hub held an in-person retreat in Grand Bayou, Pointe-au-Chien, Grand Caillou/Dulac, and Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. Tribal leaders, elders, and organizers came together with partnering scientists to be in place together and share in conversations and meals, as a community, to deepen the learning and understanding around place-based lived experiences and the intersection of environmental, economic, political, social, and cultural dynamics in the region. Building relationships and sharing capacity was at the heart-center of the learning experience, holding space to further understanding of a diversity of knowledge systems and ways of knowing and practices. Doing so enables the team to work more intentionally together, with care, towards the First Peoples’ Vision for the Louisiana Coast.  Earth Data Relations Working Group: Governance of Indigenous Data in Open Earth Systems Science, The Earth Data Relations Working Group (EDRWG), for which LiKEN was a co-convener, came together in 2023 and 2024 to address the following question: In the age of big data and open science, what processes are needed to follow open science protocols while upholding Indigenous Peoples’ rights?  In January 2025, the EDRWG’s published recommended actions in Nature Communications that recognize Indigenous Peoples’ sovereign rights, support more responsible and effective research across the Earth Sciences, and “envision a research landscape that acknowledges the legacy of extractive practices and embraces new norms across Earth science institutions and open science research” (Jennings et al., 2025). To read the full article, please visit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53480-2 .  Conclusion As we move through 2025, we carry with us the lessons, partnerships, and momentum from this season. Each story shared here, from high school classrooms in Martin County to flood response efforts, forest stewardship, and national conversations on data and resilience reflects the heart of LiKEN’s mission: to honor place-based knowledge, strengthen community ties, and co-create pathways toward justice and sustainability. We’re deeply grateful to all our partners, collaborators, and community members who make this work possible. Thank you for walking with us whether you’re reading, organizing, planting, sharing, or showing up in your own way. We look forward to what’s ahead and to continuing this journey together.

Rooted in Place, Rising Together

LiKEN Program Updates, Spring 2025 At LiKEN, our work is rooted in relationships to place, to people, and to the knowledge that connects...

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May 21, 2025

By Itzel Flores Castillo Wang, LiKEN Disaster Resilience Program Assistant “We all bury our dead together, we all raise our children together”  - MariaElena Lopez, Founding Director of the SPACE This small, but very big sentence was only part of the many learnings that MariaElena Lopez, one of many amazing panel speakers, shared during Celebrating Restorative Relations: Connections between climate resilience, Indigenous rights, and land and water rematriation . This seemingly small sentence reminds us of why connection and relationships matter immensely - because together, especially in times like today, we all can come together to uplift and support one another. Perhaps more importantly, as we come together we can heal and “when we heal and the land heals, it enriches everything for everyone.”  With this sentiment in mind, throughout Celebrating Restorative Relations  intersectionality across movements and honoring relationships, people, places, and more were uplifted and echoed by everyone. The event, which happened on March 6th in the traditional homelands of the Chumash people, known as UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara in California, included a morning workshop and evening community-building gathering, and was co-hosted by LiKEN in collaboration with the CREW Center for Restorative Environmental Work , the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Climate Justice Working Group ,  the UCSB American Indian & Indigenous Collective , and the SPACE Su’nan Protection, Art & Cultural Education . Featured panelists included Indigenous and allied movement builders, practitioners, and organizers (see flyer for more details on each of these amazing change-makers) who highlighted the importance of collective actions of reviving relationships of care and connectedness between peoples, lands, waters, and multispecies kin.  Both gatherings centered on critical conversations needed to understand and amplify connections between Land Back movements and politics, processes of reciprocity, and resilient ecosystems – as well as the importance of decommissioning and dam removal within energy transitions, among other responses to global climate change. Overall, both events served as an opportunity to celebrate ongoing acts of resistance and restoration, with one of the other goals in holding both gatherings in communities close to one another to be rooted in awareness of how place and community interact in different contexts. Special thank you and gratitude to Tristan Partridge and Javiera Barandiaran for coordinating the morning workshop at UCSB, and MariaElena Lopez  for opening up the SPACE to welcome us for the evening community gathering. Morning workshop on the UC Santa Barbara campus. Event organizers and panelists from left to right: Tristan Partridge, Javiera Barandiaran, Teresa Romero, Margaret McMurtrey, MariaElena Lopez, Itzel Flores Castillo Wang, Sybil Diver, Julie Maldonado, and Sarah Barger. Facilitator and panelist speakers. From left to right: Julie Maldonado, Teresa Romero, Sybil Diver, MariaElena Lopez, Margaret MCMurtrey, and Sarah Barger. The morning workshop, held on the UC Santa Barbara campus to connect with students and the broader campus community, helped to set the tone for the day with a special focus on sharing what people can do to support restorative environmental and social justice movements while celebrating relationships, kindness, empathy, processes of reciprocity and more. Panelists shared both personal and professional experiences on how we can be part of these crucial conversations, with all uplifting the value of honoring place-based learning, traditional ecological knowledges and practices, and sacred connections to land, water, and all our relatives.  They spoke of the importance of appreciating the unique experiences, traits, and knowledges that each person and place have to offer, and knowing and understanding their traditions, language, and more - as this is crucial to being able to build relationships with intentionality and care for how learnings are shared with one another to keep the work moving forward. This morning - which saw the room filled over capacity, which only highlighted how much students and people are ready to join, build, and continue these relationships - ended with calls to action from the panelists which included:  Being a good guest  on lands you are not from and making time to learn more about the communities you are a part of Uplifting youth voices  and teaching them from early on about Indigenous history and histories of their communities Always centering the community and placing them first ,  asking what you can do for the community, as opposed to proposing what you can do for them Understanding that relationships and trust take time to build, that patience and empathy for one another are key factors and  To show up and continue showing up, especially as allies, because oftentimes this work takes years and continuous support is needed. Community gathering at the SPACE. Event organizers and panelists from left to right: Sybil Diver, Teresa Romero, Itzel Flores Castillo Wang, Sarah Barger, Tristan Partridge, Javiera Barandiaran, Julie Maldonado, Margaret McMurtrey, and  MariaElena Lopez. Inside the SPACE, with panelists and community members. As the evening approached a smaller group of people gathered in community at the SPACE in a more intimate setting, allowing the opportunity to take a deeper, perhaps even more vulnerable dive into the morning conversations. MariaElena and her family opened this gathering with a beautiful song and prayer to help in guiding and protecting the conversations that were about to be shared. Panelists and guests discussed the crucial importance of peacekeeping work, treating everyone with respect, of knowing the why and how actions (such as cultural fires) are done, the understanding that no one’s knowledge is above others, and what it means to be able to access and reconnect to the land. In talking about peacekeeping work, panelists spoke to how this work can be hard and difficult to navigate because there is much hurt, trauma and sadness that needs to be talked about and addressed; but at the same time, what was highly uplifted was the need to come together, invite everyone into these conversations, and create safe spaces where people can be vulnerable with each other and heal in order to truly be able to recognize and support one another. In connection to this, others spoke to the challenges in working within colonial systems of land ownership but within that also looking for the positive in learning how to navigate them and helping to undo harm through this. And not only undo harm through vulnerability and healing, but also through reparations - both individually and collectively.  “If we start with love, end with love - we will figure out the rest of the mess in between.” -Julie Maldonado, LiKEN Associate Director The energy felt by the group of people gathered in these convenings was palpable. Especially in light of the world we are currently experiencing, the need to be in community could be felt. But more than anything, the feeling of being in   community with people who share the same vision and values was strong and the energy emanating from the panelists, participants, and more, for wanting to continue strengthening and building connections with one another, continued to grow stronger as the day carried on. Celebrating Strong Relations   was not just a one-time event; it is a continuous must-do as we carry on with fighting for land back and regaining access to sacred spaces, for water, for past and future generations, and so much more. The journey towards liberation for all may not be easy, but if we do it together, we can rise through it together. T hank you to all the wonderful panelists for  your time and shared wisdom, and to all those who attended for making time to join us in these crucial moments. We cannot wait to continue building on these connections and relationships into the future. “We all bury our dead together, we raise our children together” We all fight together, we raise our communities together We all rejoice together, we heal our hearts together We truly are stronger together, we rise through it all together Times are hard, especially right now But if we come together, we can overcome together We can be sad together, angry together, happy together, joyful together In community, together, we can -Itzel Flores Castillo Wang

Celebrating Restorative Relations

By Itzel Flores Castillo Wang, LiKEN Disaster Resilience Program Assistant “We all bury our dead together, we all raise our children...

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April 18, 2025

Frontline Flood Relief in Leslie County: Part 1 by Matthew Sparks Middle fork of the Kentucky River in front of Leslie County High School (Photo credit: Matthew Sparks) Your second catastrophic flood hits differently. Especially when it literally hits your hometown. I consider most of southeastern Kentucky my home—like many deeply rooted families here, I’m connected by blood or marriage or the Appalachian experience to most of the surrounding counties. This kinship compelled me to act during the thousand-year flood in 2022, but Leslie County, my home in the truest sense of word, was spared for the most part. It was perhaps this relative “sparing” that compelled me and so many other grassroots community volunteers to begin organizing and heading further afield in our relief efforts the last time, but this time, we were at ground zero.  By the time my power came back on after nearly two days on the 18th of February, my county was in full-blown crisis mode. Most of us had never seen the river so high. It was freezing cold out. Snow was coming. About half of the county was underwater—specifically the Confluence/Dryhill/Wilder Branch area. You could see it all over Facebook: there was a catastrophe unfolding in my hometown. And I knew that the following day I’d be getting a lot of texts, and hearing from a lot of people I hadn’t heard from since 2022. This time, however, it wasn’t chaos—we had been through this rodeo before—and although we would be fighting against the rising rivers, we were much more familiar with what we had to do. The “Bottom” off of Owl’s Nest Road (Photo credit: Matthew R. Sparks) The first order of business was to get as much mucking out done before we got buried in snow again and the temperatures drastically dropped. Some community members had assessed the damages on Cutshin Creek and identified one house we could go to work on almost immediately. They needed tools. I developed a bit of a reputation for myself as an extreme networker and fundraiser in 2022, so they contacted me. I knew what to do. I made some posts on Facebook and began tapping into those mutual aid and local networks. Very shortly I was able to raise about $300—enough for a Lowes run and to get the basic muckout gear for a first response. Mind you,  Leslie County had not even been declared a disaster yet; no volunteers or outside aid had even entered the county. We were truly on the front lines. I made my Lowes trip feeling the familiar strain on the supply chains that I recalled in 2022. Hazard’s downtown had been flooded, as was Pike County further east. All the folks from around 3 counties (if not more) were coming to Hazard to get supplies. I got lucky—I arrived just as a shipment of squeegees was coming in. I made the delivery up Cutshin, briefly and warmly greeted my old friends. We developed a plan of action for the week and I went back to my office. There wasn’t much more I could do that day, and I still had the responsibilities of a 9-5.  The following day, I had been able to collect about $500 more in donations through a combination of local channels, “expat-alachians,” and Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid. I donated a heater of my own to some families up Cutshin, and was able to wrangle some dehumidifiers up as well. Cleanup was underway, but it would have to wait: snow and freezing temps were coming. People would need food, water, fuel, heat, and some would need construction materials. The second round of donations went immediately to that. Plus I’d have to winterize my family’s own home and prepare to possibly get snowed in yet again—and for all that would bring for the work week. Community flood relief champions, Carrie Melton and Natasha Roberts (Photo credit: Matthew Sparks) After an effective two days, we did what we could to manage the crisis, and the snow began to fall on the bitter cold, moist, soggy, flooded ground of Leslie County, much of which was without power, water, and about half of the northern part of which was underwater. We had a good start, but saving momentum would be critical. This was going to be a long haul.

Rising Waters, Falling Snow

Frontline Flood Relief in Leslie County: Part 1 by Matthew Sparks Middle fork of the Kentucky River in front of Leslie County High School...

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March 10, 2025

LiKENeer Brandon Jent’s Poetry and Appalachian Resilience Brandon Jent shares his work at the Hindman Settlement School's Appalachian Writer's Workshop (Photo credit: Hindman Settlement School ) As Central Appalachia once again faces the devastating impact of severe flooding, we are reminded of the resilience and interconnectedness that define our region. In this moment of crisis, we want to highlight the work of one of our own LiKENeers, Brandon Jent, whose poem Instructions for Surviving a One Thousand Year Flood  has taken on even greater significance. Originally published in Still: The Journal , Brandon’s piece now serves not only as a literary achievement but as a powerful reflection on the urgent challenges our communities face today. In “Instructions for Surviving a One Thousand Year Flood,” Brandon does not place blame on nature—the “rain” or “Earth Mother”—for the destruction. Instead, he sheds light on the broader mismanagement of the land and the human-induced factors that intensify these disasters. The poem speaks to the deep relationship between the people of Appalachia and their environment, urging us to acknowledge the vulnerabilities created by extractive industries, poor infrastructure, and systemic neglect. Yet, even amidst destruction, Brandon’s words remind us of the enduring strength of Appalachian communities: “We’ll stitch hearts back together like families do,  make quilts of what remains like grandmothers do.” These lines are not just poetic—they are a testament to the way our communities rally in the face of devastation. Neighbors checking on each other, volunteers distributing supplies, and families rebuilding together—this is the Appalachian spirit. “I had actually gotten COVID for the first time the same night as the flood and felt equal parts devastated and powerless to go out into the community and help in those early days,” Brandon reflected. “On the morning of the third day post-flood, the first iteration of ‘Instructions for Surviving a One Thousand Year Flood’ just seemed to flow out of me, and I posted that very raw first draft on my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts shortly after writing it. It was the most attention I had ever gotten on a social media post, let alone on a poem of mine, with over two hundred shares and three hundred likes by people across the region and as far away as Oregon. Many Eastern Kentuckians who survived the flood alongside me reached out and told me it gave them comfort, which is the best outcome I could have asked for in sharing the piece online.  “I had never really tried to get any of my poetry published at that point, but with feedback and encouragement from fellow writers in ROMP!, a queer Southern writers group I'm a member of, I submitted that early version to Still: The Journal  in spring 2023. I received my first rejection email from Still  around the same time as I received an acceptance email from Hindman Settlement School to attend the Appalachian Writer’s Workshop that summer. As luck would have it, my workshop teacher was none other than Marianne Worthington, co-founder and editor of the journal. She’s an incredible Appalachian poet and educator, and I learned so much from her in those five short days. She encouraged me to keep working on this poem and the others in my manuscript, and after heavy revisions with the new tools I learned in her workshop, I submitted a new version of ‘Instructions for Surviving a One Thousand Year Flood’ for the Winter 2024 issue. It was accepted and became my first publication credit in a literary journal.  “To this day, this poem is the piece of writing I’m most proud of and always will be. To know that my words gave people in my region comfort in a time when all of us needed it most is the biggest honor, more than I could have ever asked for. At the same time, it has been a lifelong dream of mine to have my poetry published, a dream I almost gave up on. It’s icing on the cake to know it has a home in as fine a publication as Still, which has been a platform for so many talented Appalachian voices for fifteen years.” Still: The Journal  has long been a cornerstone for Appalachian storytelling, capturing the region’s complexities beyond stereotypes. Co-founded by esteemed Appalachian writers Marianne Worthington, Silas House, and Jason Howard, the journal, which published its final issue in the Fall, has amplified voices that illuminate both the beauty and struggles of life in these hills. Brandon’s poem is one such voice, resonating deeply in a time when our communities are once again grappling with loss, displacement, and the fight to rebuild. The Tug Fork River connecting eastern Kentucky and West Virginia rose to catastrophic levels during the 2025 flooding in Central Appalachia. (Photo credit: John Burchett of Friends of the Tug Fork River ) As floodwaters recede and the long process of recovery begins, Brandon’s poem serves as both a reflection and a call to action. It asks us to consider not only how we survive these disasters, but how we prepare for and mitigate them in the future. It challenges us to advocate for policies that protect our land and communities, ensuring that resilience does not come solely from hardship but from proactive, sustainable change. We invite you to read Brandon’s poem  in Still: The Journal  #44 (Winter 2024) and to engage in the vital discussions it sparks. Let us honor our region’s storytelling tradition not just by bearing witness to hardship, but by taking meaningful action to support those impacted by these floods.

Echoes of a One Thousand Year Flood

LiKENeer Brandon Jent’s Poetry and Appalachian Resilience Brandon Jent shares his work at the Hindman Settlement School's Appalachian...

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March 7, 2025

By Matthew Sparks What in the heck is a Farm Number? And more importantly, why should someone get one? A Farm Number is a unique numeric identifier that can be registered to your parcel of land by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), a subdivision of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Farm Numbers are often compared to a Social Security Number for land. Most folks obtain farm numbers for the immediate benefit of getting tax exemptions, however having a Farm Number is a requirement for applying to almost all state and federal cost-sharing programs related to agricultural projects and land improvement. As such, a Farm Number can open doors for both seasoned and beginner farmers, as well as landowners to expand their relationship with their land. On January 16th 2025, LiKEN Knowledge in cooperation with the Farm Service Agency , Leslie County Extension Office, Leslie County Soil Conservation , National Resource Conservation Services , and Grow Appalachia hosted its first event in Leslie County: a Farm Number Registration Clinic. Despite weeks of inclement weather rendering many of the holler roads still inaccessible, a combination of the increase in temperature and perhaps even a bit of county-wide cabin fever compelled 29 people to come out and see what we were up to between 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Amid the convivial and instructional atmosphere, 8 of the participants signed up for Farm Numbers, a figure which bodes well for the future of local agriculture in Leslie County, as well as the reception of LiKEN’s Community Wealth initiative in the county. I think the event was a great success both in terms of deliverables for the grant but also just in terms of purely networking. It was wonderful to see our work being so well received and the interest from the wider community, but it was also great to see the people that I work with from LiKEN’s Lexington Office and further afield connecting with local foresters, NRCS agents, Extension agents, and Grow Appalachia representatives working in the county. I am very excited for the future of our work here. Image caption: (top left) LiKEN staff gathered with Extension Agent Michelle Brock and Grow Appalachia staffer Faye Adams-Eaton to who came to talk about Grow Appalachia's Garden Program; (top middle) Michelle and Steve Kruger talk next to a table of non-timber forest products; (top right) Leslie County Soil Conservation staff member Connie Sizemore speaks with Leslie County residents; (bottom left) a convivial atmosphere; (bottom middle) me (Matthew Sparks) with a brand new LiKEN banner; (bottom right) Steve Kruger speaking with NRCS agent JD Prater. Other LiKEN representatives present at the Clinic included Steve Kruger , Director of Forest Livelihoods; Kevin Slovinsky, Director of Land and Revenues; and Sandra Hunt, Family Assistance Coordinator. We were all particularly impressed by Sandra’s combination of legal and technological prowess in being able to locate and print PVA maps (required for the farm number application) in a matter of minutes for applicants. This was invaluable during a period of high volume traffic after 5:00 PM. Although the County Courthouse was already closed, Sandra was able to use the online website Kentucky Land Records to print all of the necessary documents for participants. . We were joined by representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (JD Prater), Leslie County Soil Conservation (Connie Sizemore), Grow Appalachia (Faye Adams-Eaton), Leslie County Cooperative Extension (Michelle Brock) , and, of course, the Farm Service Agency (Kendra Moore) . Grow Appalachia, a non-profit organization aiming to combat food insecurity and promote local agriculture by supplying individual farmers with a variety of free resources and services (such as seeds, equipment, soil testing, fertilizer, and more) also had tremendous success with participant recruitment in Leslie County for their Garden Grants Program . Of particular interest to residents was the installation of “High Tunnels," a more cost-effective alternative to greenhouses that can extend the growing season of many crops by several weeks. “I think there were a lot of informative people there who can really help our locals in any farming endeavor that they could imagine.” Said Connie Sizemore, Leslie County Soil Conservation secretary. “Whether you want to do woodland farming, or if you want to get a farm number to apply for grants to increase your productivity—to have more produce to sell at the farmer’s market, there were people there that could answer your questions.” These sentiments were also shared by participants. According to Amanda Ringelspaugh of Wild Child Apothecary LLC , “It was amazing! I learned a lot and I didn’t know that there was that much help out there for us. I want everyone to know that there is help out there!” Another participant who received a Farm Number, Tammy Smith, told us “I just didn’t know how many programs there were out there. If more people knew, there would probably be more people getting involved.” Suffice to say, LiKEN’s first event in Leslie County was a success by many metrics. While some left with Farm Numbers, all left with many more resources at their disposal to expand their relationship with their land. The best, we certainly hope, is yet to come! Contact Me: Matthew Sparks Leslie County Community Engagement Coordinator 20 Davidson Fork Rd Hyden, KY, United States, Kentucky 41749 Msparks@likenknowledge.org 606-275-0522

First Community Wealth Event in Leslie County: Farm Service Agency 'Farm Number Registration Clinic'

By Matthew Sparks What in the heck is a Farm Number? And more importantly, why should someone get one? A Farm Number is a unique numeric...

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February 1, 2025

By Kevin Slovinsky In April 2024, I received a phone call from an elderly Black woman from Kentucky who explained to me that the property tax on her property was just paid by a company she had never heard of. The woman, whom we can call Sally, called LiKEN Knowledge to ask if it had been a charitable donation or if she was legally required to reimburse the company, whose name she could not remember. The situation was certainly strange to her but was complicated by the fact that her property wasn’t just her property, it was heirs’ property and was collectively owned by dozens of other family members. The property had at one time been owned by her aunt but she had passed away and, without a valid will, the children of her 10 deceased siblings inherited undivided interests in the property and collectively owned the property as co-tenants. Although Sally’s aunt had died about a decade ago, she was still the owner of record according to both the deed and the Property Valuation Administrator. Without a clear picture of who owned the property, the idea that a company would pay the property taxes on behalf of the heirs wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for Sally …but puzzling nonetheless. So, she asked a family friend to look online for somebody to help and that is how she came across LiKEN Knowledge and my phone number.  Why would she call LiKEN though? Well, LiKEN Knowledge operates the   Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center (AHPC) , a free technical assistance program for heirs’ property owners in Kentucky in West Virginia. The AHPC primarily serves to help heirs’ property-owning families to acquire a clear title to their property. That means creating a family tree to identify everyone who owns an interest in the property, contacting them, and helping them consolidate their interests in one entity — either a single individual, LLC, or Trust — so that they can draft a deed that clearly indicates who owns the property. Without a clear title to their property, heirs’ property owners are vulnerable to losing their land due to predatory partition actions or, as will be covered here, property tax delinquency. Moreover, they are unable to receive the full benefits that come with land ownership. For example, most heirs’ property owners are less able to leverage their property to acquire a loan, grant, or financial assistance. They are also desensitized to modify the property in any way that “wastes” the property,” which includes cutting down trees. By providing title clearing technical assistance, we aim to protect families’ claims to their land and make it easier for them to utilize their land in a way that sustainably builds generational wealth. While title clearing technical assistance is the main service we offer heirs’ property owners, we are problem solvers and are happy to help them in any way we can. When h eirs encounter problems that exceed our abilities, we make referrals and/or directly connect them with people that can help. Video Caption: Watch this interview with the Shepherds of Letcher County, KY to learn more about heirs' property ownership and the benefits of acquiring a clear title In Sally’s case, I didn’t have to make a referral because I knew exactly what had happened. Her family had failed to pay the property taxes for their heirs’ property, allowing their property to lapse into delinquency. In other words, they failed to pay their debt to the county government. Accordingly, the county clerk sold the debt as a “certificate of delinquency” to “third-party purchasers of certificates of delinquency,” a fancy name for debt-collection companies that invest in delinquent property taxes. I was able to quickly confirm this by calling the clerk’s office in the county where her heirs’ property was located. Moreover, the county worker informed me that the company that bought Sally and family’s certificate of delinquency was none other than Mid South Capital Partners, a company I know well as the most aggressive purchaser of certificates of delinquency in Kentucky. Sally and her family had fallen prey to a 21st century financial system that dispossesses peoples’ land. This system, the privatized market for property tax debt, has received little attention from scholars and community organizers but is wreaking havoc on rural people in Kentucky that are ‘land rich but cash poor.’ Land ownership is the foundation for building generational wealth and Kentucky’s system for collecting property taxes inequitably impacts non-commercial owners and, specifically, heirs’ property owners. I will return to Sally’s situation and tell the full story (spoiler: it has a good ending for the family) but I first want to step back and explain how this system works and how it impacts heirs’ property owners.  In 2009 the Kentucky General Assembly   unanimously passed   House Bill 262,   creating a new — effectively privatized — system for collecting delinquent property taxes. As of 2024, this is how it works. Sheriff departments mail tax bills to the property owner’s mailing address recorded by the Property Valuation Administrator, the office in charge of assessing property value. If the taxes are not paid to the sheriff by January 1 of the year immediately following the tax year, the property taxes are marked as delinquent and acquire a 10% penalty fee. Approximately four months after they become delinquent, county sheriffs transfer the delinquent taxes to the county clerk’s office where they become “certificates of delinquency” which can be bought and sold as a commodity. If a delinquent taxpayer pays the taxes at this point, the money will go directly to the county government and will ultimately fund things like public schools and roads. If the tax is paid after the certificate of delinquency is sold to a "third-party purchaser of certificates of delinquency," the money goes directly to them. At the moment of sale, the county clerk exits the relationship triangle. The first sale of certificates happens in the summer when the county clerk holds an auction open to third-party purchasers. Clerks report how many certificates were sold during the auction to the Kentucky Department of Revenue (KDR) who then publishes a   spreadsheet of the information online . The certificates that were not sold remain available for sale indefinitely in the county clerk's office after the auction. This is important to note because some counties sell very little or no certificates of delinquency during their annual auction but do sell dozens of certificates during the remainder of the tax year. Certificates can be bought years after the tax year they were created.  Certificates that are not sold during the auction, however, are not recorded and made publicly available by the KDR. This not only means that the KDR spreadsheet of certificates is an inaccurate depiction of the certificate of delinquency market, but also that it conceals the reality that people in certain counties are being disproportionately targeted by debt collectors. For example, Martin County sold only 30 certificates between 2023 and 2017 according to the KDR's spreadsheet but it has a very active certificate of delinquency market; the third-party purchasers buy certificates in the months after the auction and so those sales go unrecorded by the KDR. When a certificate is sold to a third party purchaser, the property owner no longer owes the county government any money but rather, the third party purchaser. With a certificate of delinquency in their possession, third party purchasers are empowered by KRS 134.125, 134.546, 134.490 to demand that the delinquent taxpayer pay them the amount the third party purchaser spent to buy the certificate plus a 12% per annum interest rate and pre litigation fees or risk having the third party purchaser file a foreclosure action. If the delinquent taxpayer does not pay their debt before the end of the foreclosure suit and the judge orders the property foreclosed upon, the property will be sold by the Master Commissioner at a public auction, typically at the courthouse steps. It is a common belief that foreclosing on a property transfers ownership to the foreclosing party (i.e. plaintiff and, in this case, the third party purchaser) but that is untrue. Foreclosure puts the property up for auction and the proceeds of the auction are used to pay the third party purchaser the amount necessary to resolve the debt. That being said, it is common for third party purchasers in Kentucky to purchase the property they foreclosed upon at the Master Commissioner auction at an obscenely low price. LiKEN Community Engagement Coordinator Madison Mooney witnessed a third-party purchaser buy a 160-acre heirs' property parcel for $7,000 at a Master Commissioner auction in Martin County. All of the above also applies not only to surface properties but also mineral properties that are severed from the surface. For example, Taxco LLC is a third party purchaser that is a subsidiary of Pilgrim Energy, a West Virginia-based gas and oil company. In the late 2010s, Pilgrim consistently purchased mineral properties foreclosed upon by their subsidiary Taxco. Keep in mind that a third-party purchaser effectively pays themself to resolve the debt and obtain the property when they buy the foreclosed upon property at the Master Commissioner auction . Whatever money is left after the debt is resolved goes to the property owner or the county’s unclaimed funds collection.  When or whether a property is foreclosed upon or bought at auction by the foreclosing party depends entirely on who the third party purchaser is. Some third party purchasers are private individuals who are looking to acquire a specific property. Other private individuals engage in the certificate market as investors and act like companies do but without the protections of incorporation. The most prominent third-party purchasers, however, are companies that register themselves as purchasers with the KDR. Registering as a purchaser allows them to go beyond the purchasing limit set by the General Assembly (3 certificates in a county, 5 in the commonwealth). Of the dozens of third party purchasers registered to buy certificates of delinquency in Kentucky, a handful of particularly active companies dominate the market. Mid South Capital Partners, the company that bought Sally’s certificate, is the most prominent of them all. Mid South Capital Partners is, compared to their peers, quick to foreclose on properties once they purchase the certificate of delinquency. Moreover, they regularly purchase the properties they foreclose upon at Master Commissioner auctions. According to my research, Mid South Capital Partners owned 271 properties in Kentucky in February 2024, most of which were small acreage parcels. It is as of yet unclear how they acquired all of these properties but research into a sample of these properties suggest that at least a majority of them were acquired at Master Commissioner auctions.  The real kicker, however, is that once they purchase a property at a Master Commissioner auction, Mid South allows their property to become tax delinquent. That’s right. According to 2024 public tax delinquency records, Mid South Capital has not paid property taxes on dozens of properties in Kentucky. As of May 3, 2024, they had not paid property taxes on eleven properties in just Johnson and Martin counties that are cumulatively worth about $1,850 in unpaid taxes. For a company that owned more than 250 properties in 2024, it is puzzling to me why they do not pay their property taxes. It is possible that they allow  their properties to become delinquent because they know that they are the enforcers of property tax law. Since the privatization of the property tax collection system, county governments have seemingly taken a backseat to foreclosing on delinquent properties. County governments can compensate for the lost tax revenue by selling the certificates to third party purchasers and allow them to invest their own resources to foreclose on delinquent properties. While it is possible that another third party purchaser other than Mid South could purchase the certificates of delinquency of Mid South’s properties, my preliminary research of public records collected from Martin County indicate that registered third party purchasers rarely buy certificates on properties owned by commercial entities. This is likely because commercial properties are, on average, significantly larger and their certificates more valuable than non-commercial properties. This is especially true in eastern Kentucky where land holding, timber, and energy companies own about fifty percent of some counties’ acreage. Moreover, if the third party purchaser’s goal is to acquire the property at auction, they have a greater chance of succeeding if they target properties owned by working-class people who are less likely to have the money on hand to pay their property tax plus whatever interest they accrued.  It is clear that non-commercial landowners are adversely affected by Kentucky’s privatized system for delinquent property tax collection simply because commercial property tax debt is ‘too big to buy.’ However, a subsection of non-commercial landowners — heirs’ property owners — are particularly impacted by this system. How so? Well, it goes back to what I said about sheriff departments mailing tax bills to property owners using the mailing address recorded by the Property Valuation Administrator (PVA). PVAs vary significantly county by county generally, they do not update the “owner name” or “mailing address” they have on record for a property unless the current owner(s) tell them that the name or mailing address of the property owner has changed. It is therefore commonplace for the PVA record for an heirs’ property to have a deceased person as the owner of record, occasionally followed by “heirs” or “et al” to mark its status as heirs’ property. The mailing address, meanwhile, is either outdated or an approximate geographical location like “right fork of Maces Creek.” Nevertheless, sheriff offices send the tax bill to the mailing address on record at the PVA’s office and when the property taxes go unpaid, the debt is transferred to the county clerk’s office as certificates of delinquency to be sold to third-party purchasers. When the third-party purchasers acquire a certificate, they follow the regulations established in KRS 134.490   and send a notice to…the mailing address kept on record at the PVA’s office. If they move forward with foreclosing on the property, they again send a notification to the same mailing address. When they file the foreclosure complaint with the circuit court, the circuit court hires a Warning Order Attorney (WOA) to notify anyone with an interest in the property. So, the WOA sends a notice to the mailing address kept on record at the PVA’s office. Image caption: Public notices section of the January 31, 2024 publication of the Mountain Citizen, a newspaper in Martin County, where Warning Order Attorney Jeffrey Hinkle posted more than a dozen foreclosure notices to unknown heirs' property owners. When the notice bounces back because of a faulty address, the WOA posts a public notice in the local county newspaper. LiKEN has kept records of 400 heirs’ property tax foreclosures across 22 eastern Kentucky counties from 2014 to 2024 and analyzed the case files for three of the counties so far. Time and time again we have seen notices sent to non-addresses like “right fork of Maces Creek.” Heir’ property owners are particularly affected by Kentucky’s privatized system for property tax collection because sheriffs, third-party purchasers, and Warning Order Attorneys — all of whom rely on PVA data — cannot or do not notify heirs that their property taxes are due, delinquent, or the grounds by which they may lose their property.  Now that I have expounded upon Kentucky’s system for property tax collection and its inequities, I would like to return to Sally’s situation. Shortly after my first call with Sally, I learned that Mid South Capital Partners had bought seven years worth of delinquent tax debt worth a little more than $3,000 from the county clerk. Sally was shocked when I told her.  She had no idea that the property taxes had not been paid for seven years and that the debt could be sold off to a private company. All of the heirs’ she was aware of and in contact with were on fixed incomes and could not afford to release the lien. Nevertheless, they desperately wanted to keep their multigenerational land in the family. A couple of weeks after our first call, I met with several of Sally’s family members via Zoom and explained the situation. I promised I would look for a funding source that could cover the cost of releasing the lien. At this point, I was well beyond the services LiKEN typically offers through the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center but we were committed to helping Sally’s family any way we could. I reached out to a former professor of mine who works on land justice issues who, in turn, connected me to a Lexington-based social justice activist. In a ‘small world’ moment, the activist happened to know the affected family as they were members of her father’s church (that’s just how it goes in Kentucky). The activist connected me and the family to staffers at the Highland Center , the famous school for civil rights and labor organizers that includes alumni such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. The Highlander Center was able to directly pay the heirs $4,000 from a mutual aid fund they host. Since then, the family has received the money and paid Mid South Capital Partners the amount needed to release their lien. Now that their property is not at risk of foreclosure, the family is creating a plan to regularly pay their property taxes. Not only that but they are working with LiKEN’s Appalachian Heirs’ Property Center to acquire a clear title to their property and apply for cost-sharing programs to utilize their land.  While Sally and her family were able to release the lien on their property, escape the threat of foreclosure, and even use the momentum to start the title clearing process, the same cannot be said for hundreds of similarly situated heirs’ property owners in Kentucky. A privatized market for property tax debt threatens to exacerbate land ownership inequality, especially in eastern Kentucky where absentee corporations have long dominated the land ownership profile. The ‘old guard’ land owning corporations of eastern Kentucky gained infamy for their underhanded and illicit methods for acquiring surface land and mineral rights. They were also known for engineering undervalued assessments on their properties so as to minimize their property taxes. Any notion that those practices ended with the implementation of the Coal Severance Tax or the collapse of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky (which is in itself, a misinformed idea) blinds us to the systemic and banal means by which companies continue to sever families from claiming their place and interest in the mountains. I look forward to continuing this research and encourage anyone who has any experience with or interest in Kentucky’s property tax system to reach out and collaborate with me. Contact me: Kevin Slovinsky Kslovinsky@likenknowledge.org (619)964-0840

Kentucky's Privatized Market for Property Tax Debt, Impacts on Heirs' Property Owners

A privatized market for property tax debt threatens to exacerbate land ownership inequality.

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February 1, 2025

Climate Resilience Program Fall 2024 Update The Climate Resilience  program has experienced a year of dynamic growth and impactful collaboration, driving forward efforts to foster adaptive and climate resilient communities through intercultural partnerships and actionable research. Below, we highlight key milestones from 2024. Rising Voices 12th Annual Workshop In July, Rising Voices released the  12th annual Rising Voices workshop report,   Co-creating Research, Policy, Practice, and Action: The Rising Voices of Indigenous Peoples and Partners in Earth Systems Science, . The report emerged from the workshop held in May at NSF NCAR in Boulder, CO.  Building from the Rising Voices’ Declaration on Relationships and the Wise Use and Applications of Technologies for Climate Actions for Everyone , the workshop framing included: How can we work to better advance science, remove the boundaries between science and society, and create innovative partnerships among collaborators with diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to support adaptive and resilient communities, and to achieve culturally relevant and scientifically robust climate and weather actions? The workshop brought participants together to work on proposed pathways and guidelines for intercultural collaborations for co-created, place-based Earth systems science research, policy, practice, and action. As Rising Voices is working to pivot into a more place-based, actionable science initiative for intercultural climate collaborations, the goal of this convening was to build from long-standing engagement to collaboratively work together to move from a decade+ of Rising Voices’ recommendations into action and commitment.  Core Principles for Climate Adaptation and Justice In September, several partners of The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences ’ community relocation & site expansion working group released a collaborative document, established over years in partnership, focused on Core Principles for Agency Engagement to Support Community Rights for Climate Adaptation . The purpose is to work with partners to move these recommendations into action and commitment to support community-led adaptation and climate actions. The document focuses on recommendations for grants and funding to Indigenous and overburdened communities, for Justice40 and IRA funds, staffing for systems change, in grant administration, within grant cycles, data sovereignty, and community-led resettlement and recognizing the right to remain in place. The Land to Sea Network: Bridging Communities Across Watersheds In June 2024, the  Land to Sea Network  (L2S) held a 5-day working group retreat in coastal Louisiana with partners from LiKEN, The First Peoples’ Conservation Council of Louisiana, The Lowlander Center, Kīpuka Kuleana, The Sierra Fund, and Stanford University to continue deeping our relationships and partnerships; learn more about each other’s work ( success stories, challenges, methods used, how the work is implemented); reflect on the project’s work and goals; and build towards next collaborative efforts to further community-driven actions. To date, L2S has focused on a collaborative knowledge sharing approach with seven community hubs of connected coastal communities to the Pacific Ocean (California, Hawai‘i), the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana), and the Caribbean Sea (Puerto Rico), all planning for the future impacts of flooding and fire in the context of multiple stressors, including climate change. The process has been focused on building relationships, strengthening collaborations, and sharing a participatory process of co-learning to develop and share climate data indicators (e.g., loss of shoreline, erosion) and metrics that communities use and to enhance the usefulness of climate data for informing community adaptation responses. For more details, please visit https://www.likenknowledge.org/projects/land-to-sea-network    Sharing Knowledge at the National Tribal & Indigenous Climate Conference In September, partners (including LiKEN) of the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts: The National Indigenous and Earth Sciences Convergence Hub , organized a working group session at the National Tribal & Indigenous Climate Conference  in Anchorage, Alaska. The session  – Co-created Knowledge and Actions: Moving from the Theory of Convergence Research to Practice  – brought participants together for a sharing dialogue around convergence research and science, asking the question: What does weaving together different knowledges and understandings for climate actions look like for you or in your place? A summary is forthcoming, highlighting the key principles and vision that emerged from the session, which we offer as a way to think of what convergence science means, as an expression of radically affirming the deep relationality of life of the planet, of mother earth, of the affirmation that we are all related. Looking Ahead Through collaborative projects like Rising Voices , Land to Sea , and the RVCC Hub , the Climate Resilience program is charting new paths for community-centered adaptation and actionable science. By fostering deep intercultural partnerships, we’re building the tools, relationships, and frameworks needed to create thriving, climate resilient communities. Stay connected for updates as we continue to grow these efforts into the future. Together, we are weaving a tapestry of resilience and action, grounded in shared values and collective imagination.

Building Pathways to Actionable Science and Community-Led Solutions

Climate Resilience Program Fall 2024 Update The Climate Resilience  program has experienced a year of dynamic growth and impactful...

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November 27, 2024

Water Collaboratory Program Fall 2024 Update The Water Collaboratory  program has been hard at work this year, driving community engagement, promoting water equity, and fostering resilience in Central Appalachia. From hands-on cleanup projects to groundbreaking research, our efforts aim to ensure that every community has access to clean, safe, and reliable water. Advancing Water and Climate Equity In August, our partners at Pacific Institute  released the report Water and Climate Equity in Rural Water Systems  in the United States , co-authored with LiKEN and the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) . The report highlights the systemic challenges faced by rural water systems, including aging infrastructure, water quality concerns, and the compounded effects of climate change. It offers a roadmap for building resilience through community-driven research and practical solutions. LiKEN is using the report as a springboard to develop resources like the Water Resilience Toolkit for Harlan County . This toolkit, set for release soon, will help residents navigate water emergencies, understand their water systems, and foster community-based solutions. Building Awareness Through Community Events At the MAMAW Festival in Harlan, KY, McKensi Gilliam shared vital information on the impacts of pollutants in tap and source water on local health. Joined by Madison Mooney, she distributed educational materials, including LiKEN’s Community Engagement Guide  and resources on climate resilience, and facilitated conversations about how water systems work. This outreach was made possible with support from UK-CARES, which enhances research on air and water quality impacts linked to environmental health. McKensi Gilliam presented on “The effects of pollutants in tap and source water on the health of residents in Harlan County,” answered questions, and handed out materials on water systems, LiKEN, our Community Engagement Guide, and climate resilience at the MAMAW Fest (Mountains of Appalachia Music, Arts, & Wellness Festival) in Harlan, KY, on July 27, 2024. She was joined by Madison Mooney at her table. 2nd Annual Kentucky Watershed Network Summit  In Morehead, KY, community engagement coordinators Madison Mooney and McKensi Gilliam  attended the 2nd Annual Kentucky Watershed Network Summit. Organized by Kentucky Waterways Alliance and Watershed Watch, the event brought together residents, watershed groups, and environmental experts to discuss proactive strategies for improving water quality and addressing flooding. Notably, Friends of the Tug Fork  received the first-ever “Watershed Group of the Year” award, recognizing their commitment to protecting waterways.   Action on the Ground: Cleanup Projects in Martin County Residents in Martin County took direct action to improve their waterways during community cleanup events organized by Madison Mooney. In September’s CityWalk Creek Cleanup in Inez and October’s Warfield Cleanup, participants collected 30 bags of garbage and removed 12 tires from local water systems. These efforts not only improved the environment but also built momentum for future cleanup projects in 2025. Looking Ahead The Water Collaboratory  program remains committed to addressing immediate challenges while empowering Appalachian communities to build a sustainable future. By leveraging local strengths—such as cultural values, social networks, and natural resources—we’re fostering solutions that go beyond water challenges to create long-term resilience. For more details, check out the report from Pacific Institute   here , and watch our executive director Betsy Taylor discuss it on   Water Loop . Together, we’re working toward a more equitable future for all.

Strengthening Water Resilience and Equity Across Appalachia

Water Collaboratory Program Fall 2024 Update The Water Collaboratory  program has been hard at work this year, driving community...

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December 2, 2024

Kevin Slovinsky  and Madison Mooney  presented the results of LiKEN’s research for a collaborative project led by the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University  focused on heirs’ property in the American South. LiKEN’s Community Engagement Coordinators conducted semi-structured interviews of heirs’ property owners and local leaders (lawyers, property valuation administrators, surveyors, etc.) in Harlan, Martin, and Letcher counties. Kevin Slovinsky , Madison Mooney , and Deborah Thompson  analyzed the interviews to determine how heirs’ property owners  and their communities understand their own personal and communal wealth as well as the opportunities and barriers to building wealth. They found that both the cause and effects of heirs’ property are conflated by the historic and contemporary domination of extractive industries in eastern Kentucky. You can view the slides for our presentation, titled “Family-Land and Love Amidst Extraction: Perspectives on Heirs' Property in Eastern Kentucky,” on the Resources page on our website here . Kevin presented at the Dimensions of Political Ecology 2024  conference at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The presentation explained what heirs' property is, how it affects landowners and communities in Eastern KY, and how the Appalachian Heirs' Property Coalition  seeks to address it. Crossing over from analytical research to a vision of fostering economic justice in Central Appalachia, the presentation’s conclusion sketches out an organizing strategy that positions heirs’ property as the portal through which communities can build a kinship-based cooperative economy that can challenge the existing land regime in Central Appalachia. You can watch the presentation, titled “Dimensions of Political Ecology 2024,” on the Resources page on our website here . Kevin also presented at three seminars in Ohio, Fleming, and Franklin counties for University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University cooperative extension officers. You can watch the Franklin County presentation, titled “Navigating Kentucky's Heirs' Property” on our Resource page here . These seminars were the last of  “Navigating Kentucky’s Heirs’ Property,” an eight-part traveling seminar funded by Alcorn State University designed to train cooperative extension agents on heirs’ property. Participating cooperative extension agents are eligible to apply for a mini-grant offered by Kentucky State University to organize a community-level information session. Kevin has been working with participating agents in Eastern Kentucky to utilize the mini-grant to hold “Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs’ Property Information Sessions.” Organized by LiKEN in collaboration with AppalReD Legal Aid  and hosted by Cooperative Extension offices throughout eastern Kentucky, our Free Will-Writing Clinics offer local residents an opportunity to meet with a lawyer and write a simple will for free. Attendees can also take the time to  speak with LiKENeers to learn more about heirs’ property, the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Coalition, and our other programs and partners. “I have two months to live [...] I am so thankful for this event today. I feel more comfortable now with my life and passing because of this event today. I wouldn’t have been able to afford this on my own. Thank you so much for having this opportunity for our community.” -Wills Clinic Participant Heirs’ property is typically created when landowners die without writing a will (intestate) or when their will does not sufficiently parse the property into separate parcels for their children. By offering a free will-writing service in collaboration with AppalReD Legal Aid and other volunteer attorneys, LiKEN is preventing the creation of heirs’ property and the fractionalization of existing heirs’ property in Eastern Kentucky. Moreover, each clinic and its concurrent information session provide residents with an opportunity to start a conversation about heirs’ property in their community, the steps they can take to acquire a clear title, and how the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Coalition can assist them along their title clearing journey. Kevin has prepared a PowerPoint that runs continuously throughout the event that provides attendees with straightforward answers to their most common questions about heirs’ property. You can find that resource, titled “Heirs’ Property in Eastern Kentucky: Services & Mythbusting,” on our Resource page  here. At the time of writing, LiKEN has organized three Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs’ Property Information sessions. We held a clinic in Harlan County in March, Martin County in May, and Leslie County in June. We have helped dozens of local residents acquire a will for free and are looking forward to holding monthly clinics across Eastern Kentucky. Check out our schedule below! The following clinics are scheduled for 2024: July 18 - Johnson County, KY - 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. August 8 - Breathitt County, KY - 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. September 17 - Harlan County, KY - 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. October 9 - Perry County, KY - 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. November 19 - Floyd County, KY - 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Read the full Spring 2024 newsletter from the LiKEN mailing list !

Heirs' Property Updates: Land and Revenues Spring 2024 Recap

LiKEN has organized three Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs’ Property Information sessions so far and have five more scheduled!

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June 28, 2024

Under LiKEN’s Water Climate Equity  project, we are analyzing and synthesizing lessons learned from stakeholder listening sessions, using LiKEN’s Collaborative Coding & Analysis Dance , developed by our Commons Governance Fellow, Dr. Maria Bareli  and other LiKENeers. Along with Community Engagement Coordinator Madison Mooney , Maria presented this ‘dance’ to Dr. Julie Maldonado ’s class “Social Research for Social Change” at Future Generations University . This was a wonderful opportunity to inspire graduate students and open them up to the strengths and challenges of coding and analyzing as a collective ‘hive mind’. Our partners at Rural Community Assistance Partnerships (RCAP)  and Pacific Institute (PI)  presented our findings at the AWWA ACE conference June 10-13, 2024. Community Engagement Coordinators, McKensi and Madison, created a video to introduce and explain our new Community Engagement Guide  for the conference that will soon be available online. The Mountain Drinking Water Project  continues to collect samples from community scientists in Martin and Letcher counties. The sample collection period for the community scientists will come to a close in November 2024. The next goal of the Mountain Drinking Water Team is to work on individual report backs for the community members who have been collecting samples, along with full community report backs for each county. Read the full newsletter from the LiKEN mailing list.

Water Project Updates: Water Collaboratory Spring 2024 Recap

Under LiKEN’s Water Climate Equity  project, we are analyzing and synthesizing lessons learned from stakeholder listening sessions, using...

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October 17, 2024

LiKEN completed a strategic planning process for its Stories of Place  program, directed by Mary Hufford . The program consists of five initiatives, including County-based Story Catching projects, for which Martin County Stories of Place , directed by Karen Rignall , is a model. The other four initiatives include: Communities Telling Their Stories Through Art; Naturecultures and Ecologies of Care; Revitalizing Green Infrastructures, and Collaborative Reworlding in the wake of disaster. Details will soon be posted to the Stories of Place web pages , now under reconstruction. Hufford gave the closing keynote at the " Appalachia, Betwixt and Between: Folkloristic Perspectives on a Region in Flux " conference, held in April at Harvard University . The conference convened folklorists whose research is focused on the Appalachian region. Hufford’s talk, entitled “ Appalachian Forest Farming, Then and Now ,” explored the relationship between the historical practice of forest farming in the coalfields and the present day forest farming movement.  Historically, in coalfield communities, the integration of field and forest in an annual round of gardening, fishing, hunting, and foraging ensured access to forest commonables by many who did not own land. A crucial legacy of that commons-based forest farming system survives in living collective memories of forest composition and cycles of succession and renewal.   In the present time of post-industrial transition, Hufford asked , how might folkloristic perspectives support community-led documentation of collective memory to guide ecological restoration and planning for sustainable livelihoods in Central Appalachia’s headwater communities? LiKEN Community Engagement Coordinators Madison Mooney  and McKensi Gilliam  worked with around 90 students at Martin County High School  during their normal school day for a weeklong Stories of Place  residency. Dr. Karen Rignall  and research assistant Jamari Turner  joined the first day. During the residency, Madison led a program adapting George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" poem, resulting in 88 unique poems reflecting the students' connections to their home, Martin County. The team is now compiling these poems into a book, which Jamari is typesetting for publication. Copies will be available in the high school library and the LiKEN office in Martin County.

Changing the Narrative: Stories of Place Spring 2024 Recap

Highlighting projects that amplify local voices, sharing stories connected to the place they come from.

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June 27, 2024

LiKEN’s proposal “ Community Wealth from Healthy Rivers and Forests ” was awarded 3.1 million dollars from the Inflation Reduction program  by the U.S. Forest Service.  In Partnership with two watershed organizations, Friends of the Tug Fork  and Kentucky Riverkeeper , LiKEN will facilitate community-led ecological restoration at the headwaters in 26 coalfield counties on the Kentucky-West Virginia border.  The grant will fund several more Community-Engagement Coordinators (CECs) based in the service area along with a director for LiKEN’s Forest Farming Program .  Initial listening sessions convened by CECs will document collective memories of species and habitats that have traditionally supported local livelihoods, and that could be incorporated into restoration planning that is economically, ecologically, and culturally regenerative. Over a period of three years, communities will work with LiKEN to design and implement forest farming plans that connect communities with emerging markets.  Ethnographers on LiKEN’s staff will train CECs in ethnographic and documentary practices that can facilitate storytelling that collectively models, and reflects on, historical interactions with the region’s “ mixed mesophytic forest ” habitats. How can emerging markets for non-timber forest products and carbon-sequestering woodlands support livelihoods based on traditional knowledge and skills found throughout headwater communities?     Kevin Slovinsky  represented LiKEN at the Eastern Kentucky Farmers Conference  organized by Community Farm Alliance . He met with leaders in agroforestry technical assistance and educational programming. With presentations from the University of Kentucky  and Kentucky State University  Cooperative Extension Services, Grow Appalachia , Community Farm Alliance , the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development , and more. The conference connected farmers to service and grant-providing organizations. The case studies and scenarios resulting from LiKEN’s Sharing Successes in Agroforestry   project were published to LiKEN’s website, along with a video produced by Daisy Ahlstone  and Mary Hufford  on Ruby Daniels’ Afrolachian Agroforestry practice in Lanark, WV .   Mary Hufford attended “ Gather to Grow ,” the Appalachian Forest Farmer Coalition  conference in Roanoke, at which many of LiKEN’s partners in agroforestry presented. Participants from emerging forest farming networks throughout the U.S. worked in regional groups to inaugurate what conferees agreed is now the American Forest Farming movement.  A mighty context within which Central Appalachian Forest Farming may flourish.

Agroforestry Updates: Forest Farming Spring 2024 Recap

Updates on Community Wealth from Healthy Rivers and Forests, Sharing Successes in Agroforestry, and more.

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June 27, 2024

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