Progress report for CNE25-011
Project Information
West Branch Commons (WBC) is a 287-acre community land trust located at the headwaters of the Delaware River in Delancey, NY. Created by the Catskills Agrarian Alliance (CAA) to preserve a four-generation dairy farm, WBC's mission is to support farmers with long-term land access and strengthen sustainable food systems. This project has three core objectives:
First, WBC will build its operational capacity by collaborating with other agrarian commons in the Northeast. With a dedicated coordinator and expert facilitators, WBC will develop democratic processes, including governance structures and conflict resolution procedures, while sharing lessons learned through open-source resources to benefit other land access projects.
Second, the project will foster urban-to-rural connections by offering Bronx-based community gardeners seasonal apprenticeships at Serra Vida Farm at the Commons. Apprentices will gain hands-on experience in agroecological practices, scaling techniques, and sustainable farming, returning to their gardens equipped to improve local food systems. Reciprocal visits from WBC farmers to the Bronx will deepen knowledge-sharing and strengthen partnerships.
Finally, the project will improve market access for WBC farmers by providing technical assistance and logistical support through CAA's distribution network. This will allow farmers to access markets and expand mutual aid food distributions, ensuring culturally relevant produce reaches communities in NYC and the Catskills.
Through measurable outcomes such as trained apprentices, distributed produce, and expanded partnerships, this project creates a replicable model for land access and interconnected food systems.
The project scope includes three key outcome areas:
(1) Build strategic capacity for West Branch Commons through cooperative learning on the community land trust model.
(2) WBC will partner with three Bronx-based community gardens to create an urban-to-rural exchange program designed to build agroecological skills, strengthen food systems, and foster reciprocal learning. WBC will partner with Ujamaa Bronx Community Garden, New Roots Community Farm, and Morning Glory Garden over two years (2026-2027) and focus on three annual immersive experiences at Serra Vida Farm at WBC.
(3) Create access to markets and business development support for WBC farmers through direct technical assistance and mutual aid food distributions to partners in the Catskills and New York City.
Catskills Agrarian Alliance (CAA) has supported the development of the West Branch Commons (WBC) in response to the acute need for long term affordable land access for beginning farmers. Through its community land trust model, WBC addresses the systemic barriers to land access faced by producers, as well as the rapid loss of farmland in New York State, occurring at a rate of 51 acres per day, according to American Farmland Trust.
WBC will provide long term ground leases to farmers, which offer secure land tenure without requiring capital to buy land. This model challenges the speculative land market and creates real opportunities for future generations of marginalized farmers to build viable livelihoods in agriculture. This project will serve current and future WBC farmers by hiring a WBC coordinator and consultants, who will collaborate with stakeholders to develop and refine WBC's operations.
This project will also serve aspiring urban growers at Bronx community gardens who lack opportunities for exposure to production farming.
Additionally, this project will support communities in both urban and rural areas through the support of food access programs. CAA’s mutual aid initiatives involve donating or offering heavily discounted organic produce to mutual aid organizations downstate and community pantries upstate. Our partners serve so populations in New York City (low-income communities,, sex workers, the elderly, just to name a few)---communities all affected by food insecurity. Locally, we address the challenges rural communities face in accessing fresh, healthy food primarily due to transportation access by working with community pantries and participating in various door-to-door food access programs. Since 2020, our farmers have cultivated and distributed 110,000 pounds of food with our mutual aid partnerships, both locally and in NYC, fueling a meaningful contribution within communities.
West Branch Commons serves the following communities across rural and urban spaces:
In the Catskills, WBC serves a mix of multigenerational farmers and aspiring land stewards in Delancey, Hamden, and surrounding towns. Historically, farmers of Delaware County face economic challenges such as limited access to viable markets, fluctuating farm income, and barriers to entry for low-income residents seeking sustainable farming opportunities. WBC addresses these challenges through long-term, affordable lease structures that enable land stewardship and sustainable farming practices. By reducing financial pressures and fostering access to resources, WBC helps ensure the viability of farming in the region while strengthening the local agricultural economy.
A core focus of WBC is fostering the transfer of knowledge between retiring farmers and the next generation of land stewards. Many experienced farmers in Delaware County possess invaluable skills and practices that are at risk of being lost as they age out of this profession. WBC facilitates mentorships, workshops, and collaborative farming models to ensure this expertise is preserved and adapted to modern contexts. Beginning farmers gain insights into effective land management, agroecological techniques, and market strategies, while experienced farmers can leave a lasting legacy. This approach helps maintain the region’s agricultural heritage while preparing the next generation to succeed in an evolving industry.
WBC also serves aspiring farmers in the Bronx by providing exposure to production-scale organic vegetable farming. Through our partnership with New Roots Community Farm, and Morning Glory Garden, the program offers immersive learning experiences. Bronx apprentices engage in hands-on activities such as preparing the land, planting, harvesting and managing irrigation and pest control. These skills, tailored to urban contexts, empower participants to strengthen their community gardens and increase food security in their neighborhoods. By focusing on culturally relevant food production and agroecological techniques, the program builds resilience and fosters food security in urban communities and enables the distribution of culturally relevant produce to families in the gardens’ neighborhoods, including staple crops for single parent households.
In addition to land access and education, WBC serves beginning farmers via access to regional markets through the CAA’s distribution and logistics network. This includes the 607 CSA - a 40+ farm sliding scale CSA that serves more than 600 members, institutional markets (i.e. school districts), a wholesale channel, and other value-aligned purveyors and mutual aid partners such as Delaware County Food Pantry that ensure fresh, nutrient-dense food reaches families upstate and downstate. Having this “in-house” market for participating WBC farms ensures viability for farmers who are new to Delaware County and may lack the connections needed for successful sales and marketing strategies.
WBC also collaborates with land access services providers and other community land trusts, such as CADE, CAA, American Farmland Trust—and hopes to collaborate with more such as Unadilla Community Farm, and Ceiba Arbor—to share learnings and create replicable models for equitable land use. These partnerships strengthen WBC’s capacity to provide affordable leases, resource-sharing, and technical assistance, ensuring long-term support for beginning farmers in both rural and urban contexts.
Catskills Agrarian Alliance facilitates its work through non-hierarchical committees who execute a strategic framework for internal and external operations. The committees (Administrative, Development, and Communications Committees) work collaboratively to execute organization-wide and program-specific initiatives and share progress with identified external audiences such as mission and value-aligned partners, funders, and the general public. CAA also works with its Board of Directors, who come from the communities that CAA serves.
As a project of CAA, WBC has been managed by co-director Francis Yu and a group of dedicated farmers and organizational partners. The WBC has adopted a community land trust model with a tripartite structure. This includes membership of: farmer lessees, community support organizations, and general community members. At present, we are developing a working group structure that includes three areas: communications, development, and administration. These groups are made up of the current board members and farmer lessees - all of whom are local farmers.
The project team engages with annual strategic planning and goal setting. We meet weekly with rotating focus areas according to our working group structure. Democratic decision making is a key value that we wish to embed into the organization. As a part of the scope of this project, we will work with an outside facilitator to create formal policies for long term working group structure and roles, and conflict resolution.
The project is heavily involved with American Farmland Trust, who currently holds the land as WBC fundraises for acquisition. We meet regularly with AFT to keep them abreast of project progress as they provide critical support by serving as leaseholders for pilot lessees, enabling them to establish roots and operations prior to acquisition. AFT’s New York Team plays a vital role by offering network assistance and business technical support, ensuring farmers are well-positioned for success. Their acquisition of the site underscores their commitment to creating a pathway for WBC to achieve permanent stewardship.
Finally, the Bronx community gardens that we are partnered with will be involved in the development of the immersion program, with ongoing check-ins and willingness to pivot program focus areas as new/different needs arise. This collaborative approach ensures that the program remains responsive and rooted in the realities of the urban gardens we support, creating a dynamic learning environment where both rural and urban farmers can share knowledge, adapt practices, and collectively address shared challenges in building a sustainable food system.
West Branch Commons addresses the critical need for equitable land access and community driven food systems by creating an innovative model for shared land stewardship. Our work aligns with broader efforts to bridge gaps in land ownership, food production, and community resilience while actively supporting pathways for new farmers to enter agriculture.
Local Relationships: This project was founded through existing robust community relationships in the Catskills, including Catskills Agrarian Alliance, the 607 CSA, Watershed Agricultural Council, and other local groups invested in the farming community. A key relationship for this specific proposal is with the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE), who provides staff time for working groups, especially on communications efforts. As a business incubator, CADE also works directly with WBC farmer lessees on their business plans, access to capital, and marketing strategies.
Urban Relationships: Through the urban to rural connection immersion program, WBC will create opportunities for urban farmers to engage with rural farming practices, expanding their skills and understanding of land stewardship at scale. This program invites one apprentice each from urban farms such as New Roots Community Farm and Morning Glory Garden to work on the land for a week during key points in the growing season. This program supports a broader effort to bridge urban and rural food systems, support pathways into agriculture, and highlight sustainable farming practices that promote biodiversity and ecological health, benefitting both urban and rural communities.
Other partners are:
- Watershed Agricultural Council, who holds the conservation easement on the land and provides ongoing best management practices education for WBC farmers;
- Pace Food and Farm Business Law Clinic, which has supported WBC in deciding on and filing for a nonprofit entity and community land trust model;
- The School of Visual Arts, which provides tailored communications strategy support; and
- American Farmland Trust, which currently holds the land in interim of WBC acquisition, while providing regional connections and technical assistance to pilot farmers.
Cooperators
Research
The research scope of this project covers one of our three outcome areas:
(1) Build strategic capacity for West Branch Commons through cooperative learning on the community land trust model.
We have hired a part time coordinator dedicated to project implementation and outcomes. This new hire, Rhiannon Wright, works to support the various project tracts and project admin, including launching WBC’s newsletter on the platform Substack. Additionally, the original Project Lead, while maintaining the lead role, has shifted to a consultant capacity with organization.
Both these roles continue to develop and maintain relationships that support the project, but specifically continue their engagement with other northeast 'commons' / community land trust (CLT) organizations focused on agriculture, Unadilla Community Farm and Ceiba Arbor. This group is scheduled to meet in Q1 2026 to develop interest areas to explore for the year as well as decide on a final product to highlight learnings.
We have also brought on a consultant who provides capacity building for the organization by developing a set of democratic procedures to govern the organization and serve farmer lessees. We have been working with Consultant, Hyunhee Shin, to create and implement organizational procedures including working group structure and organizational roles, membership schema, and conflict resolution process that align with our values of equity and transparency. Additionally, we will develop a "farmer relationship plan" that will provide a framework for how the organization will determine what farmers to offer land to, what the expectations of those farmers will be, communication and logistics between lessees, etc.
We have not drawn research results at this point in the project. We are currently tracking participation, governance process development, and partner engagement, and will report on outcomes in future submissions.
We have not drawn research conclusions at this point in the project. We look forward to providing insights in our final report.
Education & outreach activities and participation summary
Participation summary:
The second and third outcome areas of this project fall under Education and Outreach:
(2) WBC will partner with three Bronx-based community gardens to create an urban-to-rural exchange program designed to build agroecological skills, strengthen food systems, and foster reciprocal learning.
During the June–December 2025 reporting period, efforts related to this outcome focused on program design, partner engagement, and readiness-building rather than direct participant implementation. WBC worked closely with existing Bronx-based partners to confirm interest, align expectations, and ensure that the proposed exchange model reflects real needs and capacities within partner gardens.
In 2025, WBC refined the program’s seasonal structure and confirmed program readiness with Serra Vida Farm as the contracted host site. Planning efforts focused on mentorship availability, instructional scope, and alignment with farm production cycles to support effective education and outreach during future implementation years.
WBC and partner gardens Morning Glory in the Bronx and New Roots Community Farm identified priority learning areas for future sharebacks; such as irrigation systems, soil health practices, and culturally relevant crop production--so that the program’s educational content will be directly responsive to urban garden conditions and goals.
In 2025, reciprocal engagement occurred through ongoing communication, technical advising, and mutual aid food distribution relationships already in place through Serra Vida Farm. These activities supported trust-building and continuity while laying the groundwork for more formalized exchanges in future years.
(3) Create access to markets and business development support for WBC farmers through direct technical assistance and mutual aid food distributions to partners in the Catskills and New York City
Through our partnership with the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE) and the Albany Law School Community Economic Development Law Clinic, WBC farmers at Serra Vida Farm and Iridescent Earth Collective are receiving hands-on technical assistance with business planning. Over the course of the next reporting period, these collaborative TA efforts will result in new or updated business plans for the farmers, and increased business and financial acumen, and 1-3 new local sales outlets per business.
In 2025, WBC farmer lessees received stipends to support their distribution of farm products through established mutual aid networks in the Catskills and New York City. Two primary community partners for this programming are Morning Glory In The Bronx and Ujamaa Community Garden, who received a combined 7,100 lbs of food over 14 weeks. These distributions prioritized culturally relevant crops and reinforced reciprocal relationships with urban partners who are central to the broader Education and Outreach strategy of this project.
Learning Outcomes
Year 1 outcomes emphasize preparedness rather than measured learning gains. By investing in relationship-building, curriculum alignment, and logistical planning in 2025, WBC strengthened the foundation necessary for successful education and outreach outcomes during the 2026–2027 implementation period.
Project Outcomes
Our partnership with consultant Hyunhee Shin has advanced our organizational development and long-term operational capacity. This work includes strengthening internal decision-making processes, conflict resolution, and managing relationships and expectations with farmer lessees.
We do not have an assessment of approach at this point in the project. We look forward to providing insights in our final report.