Liesel Ritchie, a professor in the Department of Sociology, along with College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty members John Munsell and John Fike, is part of a $60 million, five-year project led by The Nature Conservancy and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project, “Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets for Producer Profitability and Climate Stabilization,” includes more than 40 major academic and business partners and will impact 38 states across the eastern United States and Hawaii. It is one of 70 awards from the USDA for its Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Initiatives. Munsell serves as the Principal Investigator and Ritchie and Fike as Co-Principal Investigators for Virginia Tech, which will receive $2.25 million to help mid-Atlantic and Appalachian farmers increase the use of agroforestry. The Virginia Tech faculty team will assist producers in instituting or expanding agroforestry practices that complement their farming operations.