Woodland Community Land Trust: An Antidote to Extraction in Rural Appalachia

Apr 18, 2019 • Commons Alliance, Land Access Strategies, Land Justice and Equity • By Eliza Spellman Taylor

The Woodland Community Land Trust was incorporated in 1979, making it one of the oldest Community Land Trusts (CLTs) established in the United States. Located in the Clearfork Valley of northeastern Tennessee, a low-income Appalachian community dominated by extractive industry and concentrated land holding, economic, and political power, Woodland recently marked its 40th year in operation. Today, Woodland’s vision of community ownership still resounds in possibilities for Appalachian people and confronts the realities of peasant land dispossession throughout U.S. history and worldwide.

FaithLands Pilot Project in North Carolina Welcomes Our New Coordinator, Josie Walker

Apr 18, 2019 • Faithlands, Land Access Strategies • By Agrarian Trust

We’re thrilled to welcome Josie Walker to our team as our Eastern North Carolina Project Coordinator for FaithLands, a coalition-led initiative that supports faith communities in making lands available for sustainable, agroecological farming, especially to those in society marginalized by virtue of class, race, gender, economic status, and other factors.