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
Kentucky's Privatized Market for Property Tax Debt, Impacts on Heirs' Property Owners
January 30, 2025
Heirs' Property Updates: Land and Revenues Spring 2024 Recap
June 28, 2024
[WATCH] The Shepherd Family Tell Their Appalachian Heirs' Property Story, Going from Clouded to Clear Titles
![[WATCH] The Shepherd Family Tell Their Appalachian Heirs' Property Story, Going from Clouded to Clear Titles](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z-5EHYb9GMo/maxresdefault.jpg)
January 23, 2024
Appalachian Heirs' Property Center
The Appalachian Heirs' Property Center (AHPC) is LiKEN Knowledge's free technical assist program for heirs' property owners in Eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. The AHPC is composed of community organizers, legal service providers, and natural resource professionals who work in tandem to assist heirs' property owners. The AHPC offers both free legal and land utilization/forest management technical assistance. Our forest management program is particually equipped to provide advice to landowners looking to adopt agroforestry practifces.
The mission of the AHPC is to expand the potential for commons-based livelihoods by offering free title clearing, estate planning and education, and forest management services. Our model comes from the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (CHPP), a nonprofit founded in 2002 in South Carolina, that has been nationally preeminent in developing successful methods for community-based solutions to HP problems.
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.