Perhaps the motivating question is no longer how do we produce a landscape that is worthy of our culture, but how do we produce a culture that is worthy of our landscape?
— Peter Forbes, 2007, Center For Whole Communities

In 2008 the Board of Directors of KulshanCLT decided to move forward with exploring opportunities to create affordable access to land for farming. Today, with support from the Whatcom Community Foundation and an excited and enthusiastic membership, KulshanCLT has created the Access to Land for Farming Program (ALF).

Loss of valuable farmland to urban sprawl, as many of us know, creates many environmental, economic and social challenges. Many Whatcom County farmers nearing retirement find themselves land rich and cash poor. Rising farmland prices are out of reach for new farmers and established smaller farmers looking to scale-up. We have farmers who want to see their land stay in farming, but we have an economy where their best option may be to sell that land for development. All of this is happening while new farmers are eager to find a place to grow more healthy local food, and while local food bank lines are longer than ever.

KulshanCLT, is poised to tackle the challenge on both these levels:

• creating practical steps that make land permanently affordable
• showing how our community can value land and farming in forward-thinking ways.

Click here learn more about ALF or contact Ann Russell at 360.671.5600, 103 or AnnRussell@KulshanCLT.org.