Ring: Keeping land intact, in farm and forestland, and in the family

By BETTINA RING, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch

Like many legal terms, the words “heirs property” probably do not mean a lot to most Virginians. However, this concept and the legal structures that surround it have been significant contributors to the loss of family-owned farm and forestland for many decades. Thanks to more than a year’s worth of work — led by the Black Family Land Trust, Virginia’s United Land Trusts, the Virginia Bar Association and the Uniform Law Commission, among others — this past session, the General Assembly unanimously passed a consensus piece of legislation that aims to solve many of the problems associated with our legal system’s broken way of dealing with heirs property.

Bettina Ring is secretary of agriculture and forestry for the commonwealth of Virginia

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