Land and Revenues
Program Director:
Land and Revenues works to provide accurate data about land and mineral ownership and public revenues to communities, scholars, local governments, and other stakeholders.
Through amplifying the voices of marginalized farmers and heirs’ property owners, we seek to provide policymakers with the information they need to make informed decisions. Reports to Alcorn State University’s Center for Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, report backs to project participants, podcasts, and scholarly papers reach a wide range of audiences.
Recent Blog Posts
Appalachian Heirs' Property Coalition
To amplify the economic power of locally-owned assets and encourage community-based economic development, LiKEN is organizing a coalition to directly assist owners of heirs' property in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. The Appalachian Heirs' Property Coalition (AHPC) is composed of community organizers, legal service providers, and natural resource professionals trained in agroforestry practices for Central Appalachia's mixed mesophytic forest. United under the umbrella of the AHPC, LiKEN can better coordinate with service providers to make the title clearing process affordable (or even free) and get heirs connected with the necessary services and resources.
The objective of the AHPC is to overcome the barriers to improved livelihoods and community development by offering affordable title clearing, estate planning and education, and forest management services.
Traveling Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs' Property Information Session
Through a collaboration with the Cooperative Extension Services of the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University, as well Childers & Baxter PLLC, LiKEN is organizing a series of Free Will-Writing Clinics and Heirs' Property Information Sessions in seven eastern Kentucky counties in the spring, summer, and fall of 2024. The clinics gives participants the opportunity to sit down with a lawyer to write a will for absolutely no cost and learn about heirs' property. By bringing lawyers to underserved communities and offering will-writing services for free, we aim to prevent the further proliferation of heirs' property and to connect community members with attorneys in their area.
Building GIS Capacity in Energy Communities
The accessibility and quality of land records has long presented challenges for communities in the historic coalfields of Central Appalachia. LiKEN is proudly one of eight organizations working with University of Tennessee Knoxville professors Dr. Gabe Schwartzmann and Dr. Lindsay Shade on this project which seeks to create protocols for data management that improve the accessibility and quality of land records in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia. This project is funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies.