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Agroforestry Program Director, Appalachian Sustainable Development

Kaite Commender

In 2016, Katie Commender received her Master’s in Forestry from Virginia Tech, where she served as the graduate teaching assistant for the agroforestry class and researched preferences and intentions for riparian buffer adoption and retention. Commender continues to teach the next generation of forest farmers as a founding member of the Appalachian Forest Farmer Coalition. In 2017, she founded the Appalachian Harvest Herb Hub to help medicinal herb farmers sustainably produce, process, and market herbs grown in agroforestry systems to premium markets. With Commender’s support, Appalachian Sustainable Development’s Agroforestry program continues to expand, with an Agroforestry Trainings for Natural Resource Professionals model and farmer technical and financial assistance for forest farming, alley cropping and silvopasture. When not whipping up foraged ramp biscuits and pawpaw ice cream, Commender is gardening, hiking, paddling, and skiing her way through the Appalachians and beyond. Prior to an unfortunate series of events with a stingray, her first career aspirations were to be Steve Erwin’s apprentice on Animal Planet.

Areas of Expertise

Advocacy, Professor

Company/Organization/Affiliation

Appalachian Sustainable Development

Publications / Website Link

https://swvatoday.com/news/article_9be82e0c-fb93-51d3-a96f-b880daf42c94.html

https://www.wvtf.org/news/2020-06-03/cash-crops-from-the-woods-forest-farming-economy-to-shoot-up

https://soundcloud.com/user-692318255/ofr-s1-e22-katie-commender-agroforestry-and-appalachian-sustainable-development 

The Agroforestry Coalition

We foster collaboration across sectors to increase the number of farms and ranches producing food via the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into cropping and livestock systems.

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