Publications

Farmers’ livelihoods are dependent on their ability to access and demonstrate control of land. Thus, farmers’ lives are deeply connected to the labyrinth of state laws that define how people acquire, access, control, retain, and pass down land. Not having all of the pertinent information about estate planning and land ownership can create difficult situations that may strain family relations and even put the land at risk for abandonment or dispossession. In particular, people in eastern Kentucky commonly find themselves facing difficult circumstances when they and their family own “heirs’ property” (commonly known as “property in heirship”). In this presentation, attorney Joe Childers (Childers & Baxter PLLC) and non-profit worker Kevin Slovinsky (LiKEN Knowledge) talk about the importance of estate planning and explain how heirs’ property works, what issues it can cause, how it impacts eastern Kentucky, how it can be resolved, and what resources are available to heirs’ property owners.

This guide is created especially for people seeking to improve their water and wastewater systems - especially addressing issues that arise from increasing extreme weather events - no matter what level of knowledge or involvement they have. It includes information and tips on gathering people together to work for positive change in their communities, such as steps to engage and mobilize your community, planning for a community meeting, questions to ask of your water and wastewater systems, a glossary, definitions, and sources for more information.

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This Water Resilience Toolkit is meant for Harlan County residents - especially addressing issues that arise from increasing extreme weather events - no matter what level of knowledge or involvement they have. Among the topics covered are the basics of how water is brought to your home and returns back to your environment. You can find out about the different types of water sources and water systems of Harlan County, and what stresses or even hinders their operation; what are the types of water pollution and how rising temperatures and extreme weather events impact water systems. We include information on who is in charge of the water quality of water, which are the responsibilities of those in charge, as well as the responsibilities of water ‘customers’, either businesses or households. Also included is information on who to call and what to do when something is wrong with your water, and what to do in case of climate-related water and wastewater emergencies.

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Keynote presentation given by Mary Hufford at "Appalachia, Betwixt and Between: Folkloristic Perspectives on a Region in Flux" held in April 2024 at Harvard University. The talk explored the relationship between the historical practice of forest farming in the coalfields and the present day forest farming movement.

This PowerPoint slideshow is shown during our Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs' Property Info Sessions and is designed to clear up misconceptions about heirs' property and provide attendees with straightforward answers to their most common questions.

A presentation given by Kevin Slovinsky, Director of Land & Revenues, at the 2024 Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference in Lexington, Ky. The presentation explained what heirs' property is, how it effects 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 hegemonic extractive land regime in Central Appalachia.

Kevin presented a seminar on heirs' property for University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University cooperative extension officers in Franklin County in spring 2024. This seminar was one of eight “Navigating Kentucky’s Heirs’ Property” seminars funded by Alcorn State University. 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.”

This report engages Objective Two of a larger collaborative project led by the Southern Rural Development Center/Mississippi State University in collaboration with Cassandra Johnson Gaither (Southern Research Office, Research Social Scientist, US Forest Service), Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, Dr. Cassandra Gaither Johnson led the team focusing on Objective Two. It was funded by the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, through a subaward from the US Forest Service to LiKEN. The objective of this study is to determine how heirs’ property owners (HPOs) and their communities understand their own personal and communal wealth and their perceptions of opportunities and barriers to building wealth in general, and the impact of heirs’ property in particular.

LiKEN Secures Over $3 Million from USDA Forest Service to Advance Regenerative Agroforestry and Community-Led Watershed Reclamation in Appalachia

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Carol Judy (1949-2017) wove ginseng into a dense and vibrant meshwork connecting human and more-than-human, deep past with deep future, and local with global (some would say intergalactic).

Herbalist Ruby Daniels is an Affrilachian forest farmer, living on her family homeplace in the former African American coal town of Stanaford, WV. 

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Ginseng Buyer, Proprietor of Hawk Mountain Trading and WV Wildlife Resources Commissioner

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WV Foresters, Co-leaders of WV Women Owning Woodland.

Ruby Daniels combines her family heritage with sustainable farming techniques to grow non-timber forest products, offering a model for eco-friendly and community-centered living.

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Charlie and Della Shepherd are residents of Letcher County -- a historically coal-producing county in southeastern Kentucky -- and their property used to be heirs' property. Over 40 years, Della purchased the fractional interests owned by her family members until she owned 100% of her property. Her husband, Charlie, grew up on heirs' property but his father bought out the interests of his co-tenants, like Della, and so Charlie inherited his father's property with a clear title.

An interactive guide that helps farmers and landowners affordably access, transfer, and conserve farmland. Includes an heirs' property fact sheet specific to KY.

Afrolachian Forest Farming: multiple edge-of-forest roots and herbs and value-added products, site assessment for beginning forest farmers.

Native understory medicinal and edible botanicals (ginseng, goldenseal, blue and black cohosh, bloodroot, ramps) for stocking and value-added products.

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Nursery stock: bare-root native fruit and nut trees (pawpaws, elderberries, persimmons, aronia, hazelnut, chestnut and more), shiitake mushrooms, nut flours

Maple syrup, shiitake mushrooms, and native understory botanicals.

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Forest Farming Educational Center, Host of Beginning Appalachian Forest Farmers: beekeeping, shiitake mushrooms, maple syrup, understory medicinal botanicals, site assessments for beginning forest farmers.

Walnut syrup, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts

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The authors present the observed and projected impacts of climate changes in Central Appalachia with a focus on increased extreme precipitation events and flooding on rural water systems and sanitation.

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Access to clean, affordable water is a human right, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to pay their water bills. Water bills are rising across the country at a rate outpacing inflation. Affordable water is not only important for households to make ends meet, but also from a water system sustainability perspective. Households’ inabilities to pay for water services can create a shortfall in revenue for the utility, thereby jeopardizing the ability to operate and maintain the water system. Utility affordability issues are widespread throughout Kentucky. A snapshot analysis of water bills and water burden across Kentucky using water rates collected in late 2021 through early 2022 shows large variations in monthly water bills across the state, revealing that some households pay six to nine times as much as other households. The three case studies in this report on the water systems with the highest water bills also clearly show that poor water infrastructure is an issue in Kentucky water systems, and yet repairing and replacing failing infrastructure drives up water bills. The report ends with a number of policy recommendations and includes a variety of maps, charts, and appendices.

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Multi-modal examination of heirs' property occurrence
and the experiences and perceptions of heirs' property owners and other stakeholders in selected
Appalachian counties and selected counties in Georgia and Alabama. Its purpose is to assess the
efficacy of the Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act (UPHPA) in selected Georgia and Alabama counties and to assess the potential efficacy of the UPHPA in Kentucky - a state where that law was introduced in early 2021.

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The official webpage of the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts hub at Haskell Indian Nations University, which provides information on the project and registration for the RVCC annual meeting.

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This study investigated spatial and seasonal variation in disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in Martin County, Kentucky’s rural public drinking water system by sampling from 97 homes over a year, revealing that haloacetic acids (HAAs) peaked in summer and trihalomethanes (THMs) in early fall, with temperature and conductivity influencing their concentrations—especially brominated DBPs, which are more toxic and were linked to increased conductivity during low river flow, highlighting concerns about seasonal exposure risk in small, infrastructure-limited water systems.

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Produced by LiKEN and partners at Pacific Institute and Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP)