Prairie View A&M University Joins SFLR Network to Help African American Families Protect their Forests and their Legacies

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 7, 2020)—The American Forest Foundation (AFF), administrator of the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Project (SFLR), is pleased to welcome Prairie View A&M University as the SFLR’s Network’s newest member. SFLR is a network that helps African American landowners turn their family forests into sustainable economic assets. Most African American landowners have owned their family forests for generations without realizing any significant economic value.

“African Americans have faced challenges linked to smaller land holdings as land is passed between generations. Understanding heirs’ property or ‘tangled title’ is critical to working with underserved communities. These forests may also face the risk of becoming an estate tax liability, rather than an asset,” said Ebonie Alexander, Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust, an SFLR anchor organization and member of the SFLR Leadership Team.

There is also a legacy of mistrust of the forest industry and federal programs. Although African Americans amassed 15 million acres of land in the U.S. South between 1865 and 1919, today, 97% of those lands have been lost, according to the Land Trust Alliance.

“Our goal is to help landowners avoid heir’s property and land retention issues and understand the value of properly managing forest land. The loss of historic black family land is endemic in the southeastern United States, where past discrimination and economic factors have diminished the value and productivity of black-owned forests,” said Clarence Bunch, Program Leader at the university’s Agriculture and Natural Resources unit.

The university is the eighth member to join the network.

The SFLR Program began in 2012, as a project within the U.S. Endowment for Forests and Communities. In 2019, the program administrative, fundraising, policy advocacy, and technical support functions were transferred from the Endowment to AFF. AFF now administers SFLR on behalf of the SFLR Regional Partnership which consists of the SFLR Network (sites), the U.S. Endowment for Forests and Communities, the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, The JPB Foundation, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

The SFLR network capitalizes on innovative partnerships between local, state, and federal organizations to assist landowners. The network provides a variety of support to these landowners, including access to legal assistance and opportunities to benefit from sustainable forestry. 

Sustainable forestry offers an opportunity to keep forests as forests while generating sustainable income. The estimated $14 billion value of African American-owned rural land is an essential source of rural wealth that could play a valuable role in individual families' economic sustainability and wider rural communities.

“Expanding our network to Texas will allow us to leverage the experience of the Prairie View A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Human Sciences and tap into their network of partners in the state,” said Mavis Gragg, SFLR Network Director at the American Forest Foundation. “We are thrilled to welcome them into the network.”

The SFLR network has assisted more than 1,400 landowners, who own a combined 99,000 acres, ensuring land assets remain held by historical landowners. The foundation for the network’s success is the excellent work of African American-led community-based organizations with strong connections to black families and institutions.

These community organizations built relationships of trust, assisted, and educated landowners about opportunities, brokered forestry services, and monitored landowner progress toward sustainable forest management. Their work has helped African American forest owners retain their land and become advocates for well-managed forests with their neighbors.

About the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Network (SFLR)

The SFLR network was launched in 2012 to help African American landowners turn their forests into sustainable economic assets. The network capitalizes on innovative partnerships between local, state, and federal organizations to assist landowners. SFLR provides a variety of support to these landowners, including access to legal assistance and sustainable forestry opportunities. The network supports eight project sites across eight states and more than 1,400 landowners. The participants own a combined 99,900+ acres, ensuring land assets remain held by historical landowners.

The SFLR network has been recognized with multiple awards, including the USDA U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester’s Honor Award for Delivering State and Private Forestry Programs in 2019; the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Secretary's Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships in 2018; and the USDA's highest honor, the Abraham Lincoln Award for protecting natural resources in 2016.

Anchor organizations:

• Virginia—Black Family Land Trust

• North Carolina—The Roanoke Center/Roanoke Electric Cooperative

• South Carolina—Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation

• Georgia—McIntosh Sustainable Environment and Economic Development (McIntosh SEED)

• Alabama—Limited Resource Landowner Education and Assistance Network (LRLEAN)

• Mississippi—Winston County Self-Help Cooperative

• Arkansas—University of Arkansas Pine Bluff

• Texas—Prairie View A&M University

Media Contact

Mavis Gragg Director, SFLR Network, American Forest Foundation 202-599-8159 mgragg@forestfoundation.org