Podcasts

Season 7 | Community of the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR) | Episode 16

#115 | The stories of each generation make the land as important as the blood in your veins

June 12, 2019 | Ebonie Alexander

Lillian “Ebonie” Alexander is the Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust (BFLT), one of the United States’ only conservation land trusts dedicated to the conversation, preservation, and protection of African American and other historically underserved landowner assets. Ebonie and her team host regular workshops in the community to educate and share the importance of keeping land within the family. Since joining the Black Family Land Trust in 2009, Ebonie designed and implemented the African American Land Ethic and the Wealth Retention and Asset Protection programs. Together these two programs have assisted landowners in retaining family ownership and control of more than $12.5 million of their land assets during the past five years.  Find out much more about Ebonie’s journey and the important work of the BFLT on this week’s show!

Key Takeaways:

[1:40] A message from Leadership Nature.

[2:20] A quick intro about Ebonie’s background.

[3:35] How did the Black Family Land Trust (BFLT) first get started?

[5:35] What did Ebonie do before joining BFLT?

[9:55] What does the BFLT do and how does the organization help African American landowners?

[14:50] What is the definition of a land trust?

[16:15] Ebonie explains who typically needs and uses BFLT services.

[19:50] What is “heirs’ property”?

[21:50] Why does Ebonie recommend against doing land partitions?

[25:45] Many next-generation landowners don’t want to own farmland due to its slavery ties.

[30:40] How does Ebonie educate the community on the benefits of owning land?

[33:10] Ebonie explains the important partnerships necessary for the success of the SFLR Program.

[39:15] Ebonie shares a client success story!

[46:45] Ebonie shares some final thoughts about the importance of keeping the land within the family.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Learn more about the Black Family Land Trust here: www.bflt.org

Connect with Ebonie Alexander on LinkedIn here: Ebonie on LinkedIn

Visit the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities here: Usendowment.org

More information on the SFLR Program, to here: Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR)

Learn more about the Sustainable Forestry Initiative here: www.SFIProgram.org

Learn more about the Center for Heirs Property Preservation here: www.heirsproperty.org

Learn more about how Roanoke Electric supports the SFLR Program here: www.roanokecenter.org

More information on USDA NRCS: Nrcs.usda.gov

Learn more about the Virginia Department of Forestry here: www.dof.virginia.gov

Learn more about the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services here: www.vdacs.virginia.gov