Community Land Shepherds was founded in 2023 by Terry Church and Saill White in order to build a community of practice with others driven to strengthen our connections with each other and with the land we live on.
Press
2025 – September 23
Saill White is interviewed by the Petaluma Argus Courier about Community Land Shepherds and soil health. (original article: paywalled)
2025 – April 18
Terry Church is interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle about the Sonoma County Open Space District’s Buy, Protect, Sell program. (original article: paywalled)
2021 – May/June
Terry Church discusses regenerative planting for Made Local magazine.
Board of Directors
Adam Kahn
Adam is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California and has over 20 years of experience working in community mental health settings and private practice. As a psychotherapist, Adam specializes in Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy and Climate Psychology. He holds a firm belief that as we turn to face our planetary predicament, our encounter with ecological grief is a gateway to deepen and expand our awareness of humanity’s inter-dependence within the web of life. His work is aimed at supporting individuals and groups to shift from an ego-centric world view to an eco-centric one.
Jeff Charter
Mary Beth Bride Leland
Mary Beth Leland has been teaching for 25 years and loves growing food to donate to families in her community, in an effort to keep food local. She adores her grandkids and running on trails that venture way too far into the mountains. As a community organizer, Mary Beth founded the Deviled Eggery, an organization that offers space for pop-up events in her home, which used to be a restaurant. Mary Beth is all about bringing people together to support local, sustainable living.
Richard King
Richard is still in training, has never been an expert, and finds great satisfaction in helping others learn from each other in such a way that everyone becomes more successful. Richard’s background includes growing up on a small egg production farm in Penngrove in the 50’s & 60’s and then becoming a rangeland specialist with USDA-NRCS (formerly Soil Conservation Service) in 1975 after studying wildlife and rangeland management in college. In his 36-year career, he learned from countless land managers in northern Arizona and northern California. After returning home in 1991, Richard enjoys rebuilding soil health, biodiversity, and generating extra income from grass finished livestock on part of his great grandparent’s farm. Although officially retired from NRCS, he still enjoys family, friends, and helping others become more successful in their management. He believes management must be holistic, planning is essential, and conflict resolution skills are all absolute essentials, not options, to live the life you want. He maintains various professional certifications with Holistic Management International, The Savory Institute, California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, and Society for Range Management and helps others learn how to better plan and resolve difficult issues. Feel free to contact Richard by email rking1675@gmail.com or on his mobile phone (707) 217-2308 if you have any questions.
Saill White (treasurer)
Saill’s checkered past includes forays into astrophysics, energy efficiency, open source virtualization, data analysis and programming. She currently earns her livelihood as a web developer, egg producer, and occasional sheep shearer while working with her crew of small grazers to revitalize the corner of Coastal Miwok land that she currently inhabits.
Siri Larssen
Terry Church (president)
Terry’s passion for working with horses & their people has always merged with a love of the natural world & a life spent outdoors. Small farm living more recently led her to planting trees & native edible gardens while co-managing a neighborhood grazing project, singing, writing, researching genealogy & dreaming about all the crafts she’ll get back to one day.
We are the shepherds
of the valleys and the shadows
and the roadsides
and the ditches
and the railroad tracks.
We take our rest in
the greenest pastures
from the mountains
to the oceans
to the underpass camps.
We walk the paths
we wield our staffs
with wisdom
and mercy
and justice for all.
We break our bread
on bended knees
beneath the trees
with our enemies
our souls restored.
The waters are still.
Our tables are full.
Our cups, they runneth over.
We are the shepherds.
We shall not want.