Land In Common Inc

Land Access:We protect land where people live and work, by removing land from speculative markets and placing it into a cooperatively-held, community-stewarded Commons. We work with land-seeking communities and organizations that historically and presently are excluded from land ownership, and connect them with secure, life-long, and affordable land and infrastructure. In 2024, we created three new land-based communities through this program. We purchased a farm in Porter, Maine which is now the home of La Finca Cooperative, a BIPOC-majority farm cooperative supporting community food security and land connection. We purchased a 66 acre parcel of land along the Little River in Belfast, Maine, which is now a shared community space, offering outdoor and indoor gathering space for a host of local organizations and groups. Finally, we protected a parcel of land along the Sandy River in Avon, Maine, which is now the home to Generations Retreat and Grow Farm, an organization offering outdoor wilderness and agricultural educational opportunities.

Movement Building & Education:In this program, we build the land justice movement through community education and gatherings. We hosted events and spoke on panels to educate the public about land justice. We convened community organizers from multiple communities across Maine to coordinate their activism, share learnings, and build community together.

Wabanaki Solidarity:Our Wabanaki Solidarity work takes a few different forms. In 2024, we collaborated closely with First Light to plan a year-long "learning journey" to educate non-native conservation professionals about ways to deepend their support for Wabanaki land re-connection. We co-coordinate a working group with the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship that supports fundraising for the Wabanaki land reconnection fund (Wolankeytomone kisi apaciyewik). And we particiate as a member of the Conservation Community Delegation to the Wabanaki Commission, supporting land return in various ways. In addition, we have been working on returning an additional 34 acres of forest land we hold to Bomazeen Land Trust, a Wabanaki-led 501(c)(3) conservation organization.

Grassroots Housing Collab:We are developing a grassroots model for affordable housing development on land held by community land trusts. In 2024, we conducted research into funding and materials sourcing options, and organized resources and volunteers. We began work on a pilot housing project in Greene that we are using to test and hone our housing model; we completed planning and siting, identified contractors, and raised funds. With this groundwork completed, we are on track to construct the first unit of housing in 2025.

Land Stewardship:This area of our work is focused on stewarding the land that we hold. We hold in trust and protect over 500 acres of agricultural and wildlands across four counties in Maine. This land is home to 9 different land-based projects, including farms, an affordable housing community, and multiple shared community spaces. In this program, we work to ensure the land and the people living and working on the land have the resources they need to thrive. Our work included collaborating with land stewards to amend land tenure agreements to better facilitate the sharing of resources and space, and partnering with Wabanaki foresters to develop climate-informed forest management plans to ensure the long term wellbeing of the wildlands.

Land Protection:A core part of our work is bringing land into fee ownership by Land in Common for long-term protection. In 2024, we were able to acquire three new properties, totallying 197.5 acres: a 15.4 acre farm in Porter, Maine; a 66 acre parcel of forested land in Belfast, Maine including significant undeveloped portions of the Little River; and 116.1 acres in Avon, Maine consisting of significant farmland and forest and nearly 1/4 mile of frontage on the Sandy River. All of these properties have now been matched with long-term stewards, and we are working closely with Wabanaki foresters to develop long-term forestry and conservation plans.