Share land!

Share it freely with others.

Grow New Brunswick into a garden paradise.

We invite you to help us create a paradise in New Brunswick. There are plenty of abandoned farms all along the rural roads, waiting to become rural neighbourhoods, filled with micro farms and garden homesteads.

Or, perhaps you are a land owner, or know a land owner, who will be willing to begin the journey of sharing their land in order to create a vibrant rural neighbourhood. Imagine…one hundred acres can become nearly 20-30 homestead lots. Homes creating a rich tapestry of gardens, kids playing together, families helping each other, celebrating together.

It is time to purchase abandoned rural land and share it with others, or share what you already have, freely. This is part of the foundation for creating rural neighbourhoods: making land accessible to all, at no cost. Yes, no cost. Accessibility to land should not require anyone to open their wallets. Now is the time to share land and remove the thought of purchasing and selling land for profit. Land is for living on, not profiting on.

The first step is to root yourself into a relationship with the earth, and create a home. Here you will find the peace of mind to begin the journey of healing our broken relations, of knitting together friendships with others.

The next step is extending a welcome to others, by sharing land with them freely. Creating community is the inner inclination to see the benefit of creating a community for all…no exceptions.

For nearly 15 years my partner and I have been investing our efforts to help develop a thriving neighbourhood. I will share as much of the details with you here as I can. You can read here personal stories and thoughts on the subject, and can reach out to me anytime to ask questions about this journey.

Without a doubt, the natural world around me has been a medicine for over 30 years. The dramatic skies, the gentle greenery, the animal life…they all help bring peace of mind, without which it would be impossible for me to help develop a community.

That’s a start! I will share more here in time. Trust that you have everything inside you that you need to make it happen.

Here is an introductory guide create by the Foundation for Intentional Communities entitled, “Starter Guide to Intentional Communities.”

We began a new iteration of this site in September, 2021. The old one can be accessed here. You are invited to read my personal thoughts on the subject of creating rural neighbourhoods, below:

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  Share Land!
  After we first came to rural New Brunswick in the mid 1990’s, we began to notice a distinct group of people. This group had been part of an exodus from the urban centres in the 70’s and 80’s. They had left behind their upbringings, and were without agricultural or construction skills. They began homesteading and… Continue reading Share Land!
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  Go east, young woman
  A letter from a possible New Brunswick future. Dear New Brunswickers, I’m excited for next week. It’ll be Wednesday March 6, 2030 and I’ll be heading to the Land Services office of New Brunswick in Fredericton. My family is hoping that parcels of land will still be available outside of Fredericton. I am certain there… Continue reading Go east, young woman
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  The Given Land
  Sharing here an article by German journalist, Uta-Caecilia Nabert, about our journey of sharing land in rural Canada. Uta visited us a few years ago and created this article for a German readership. Not long after it was translated and shared in English. Here it is: Link to English Article I am sharing this primarily… Continue reading The Given Land
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  You are needed.
  Are you longing for community? You can create a community, a real one, with people of all ages who become kind neighbours to you. And this is much easier to do in the forgotten back roads of our rural landscapes. If you are willing to step outside the comforts and conveniences of our overbuilt, over-populated… Continue reading You are needed.
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  The Gift of Land
  Dear folks, Thank you for being here. For many, the idea of creating a rural neighbourhood may not be your focus. But likely there will be a few for whom it may. Perhaps the growing interest in a ‘Gift’ economy may be a plausible means to assist community founders in acquiring land to share.  Sharing… Continue reading The Gift of Land
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  FREE LAND
  I have to get back to installing doors in a new house in the neighbourhood, but before I do, I wanted to make a post to say that I will continue here sharing the inspiring event that is unfolding around me here in the rural hinterland. We hosted a pizza party last night for neighbours… Continue reading FREE LAND
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  The Flourishing Dirt Road
  I am here to share news of a coming together, of the creation of a vibrant community, so that you will take part in creating communities of your own. First, I am simply one part of many moving parts that came together to create our community. Some would say I played a pivotal role, as… Continue reading The Flourishing Dirt Road

Sharing Land

Basics

These are only my opinions. They are written for those of us called to share land. We are not special, any more that a plumber is special, but a plumber uses specific tools, so here are some of the tools we used. You are like the front-desk welcomer at any motel. Be welcoming to everyone who comes down the road. They are each a treasure beyond measure. Treat them as such, and then leave them alone to do their thing.

Sharing land should be improvisational. But, as with almost all music, there are elements that are universal. I am not certain which of these elements below are foundational to sharing land, but they are the elements that make up our version of land sharing. (And it has been a wildly fun adventure…and successful 😉

First, free access to land is (and must be treated) as a birthright of being human. Having a place to put our body on the planet, without having to open our wallet, is essential. Animals and plants have this basic right accorded to them, naturally, why not us? And start moving the world away from land as commodity. It may be useful in efforts to liberate land to purchase it, or on occasion, to sell it, but start moving towards eliminating this pattern of seeing land as part of the speculative market.

Second, access to land should not be based on a decision by an individual, or even a well-meaning group…no discrimination should be applied. Like-mindedness is an illusion. Chasing after an ideal of a like-minded community has the potential of creating a ghetto of mono-culture, and biologists have been crying out for years about the importance and health of a diverse eco-system. You never know which person in your community will have the critical skills or capacities in times of need. Invite them all in.

Third, size matters. Enough land should be accorded individuals and families that they can have space to build their dreams, their homes and gardens, have an orchard and berry bushes, a flock of chickens or some goats, a small wood-lot…but not so much land that they can’t love it all. I feel 2.5 to 5 acres is the sweet spot. On a side note, put common-land buffers between parcels – 9 metres or 27 feet is a suggestion. Also, don’t divide the land into multiple deeded lots. Keep the original land purchase undivided.

Fourth, participants own all built improvements on their parcel. They can sell these improvements to a newcomer, or they can be inherited by offspring. There should be no organizing body that polices the goings-on within parcels. These are sovereign spaces. Leave them alone. They are sacred, private refuges for the stewards of the parcel. You may be the ‘land-owner’, but in essence, you just own a useless piece of paper. Don’t bother them. If you really must speak up, don’t do it with a set of by-laws in your hand, just paint a sign and march up and down at the end of their driveway.

Fifth, there will be common land that will connect and surround all of the parcels. This land will have common roads, perhaps a common well, outbuildings, community hall…this land will have to be managed by those who make use of it. This may be a monthly meeting of members of the community. This may well be the hardest part of living in community. If you thought making an important decision with a partner is hard, making an important decision with 15 households is hard, too. Instead of prescriptive measures, I suggest learning to come into each meeting with love and curiosity. Also, it is okay to set some boundaries of general decency in the meetings. Don’t let process and politics overpower spiritual, love-centred activity. Good luck.

If you are called to share land, and want to speak directly about it, please reach out: leland@back2land.ca