Tilled farmland in Oregon's Willamette Valley under an overcast sky, with wooded hills behind it

A Drew Keske Concept · Washington & Yamhill County, Oregon · 501(c)(3) in formation

Three Field Commons — Farmland Held in Common for the Tualatin & Yamhill Valleys

Held for good.

We buy and permanently protect working farmland west of Portland, then lease it long and low to the people already feeding these towns.

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What this is, who it’s for, and why it exists.

What it is. Three Field Commons is a farmland-holding nonprofit forming in Oregon's Tualatin and Yamhill valleys. We acquire farmland by purchase, bargain sale, or family succession, protect it permanently with an agricultural easement, and lease it on long, low-cost, legally binding terms to organizations already growing food and teaching here.

Who it's for. Farm families deciding what happens to a place they can't work forever. Food-access nonprofits, farmer-training programs, and small commercial farms that need ground they can plan around. And neighbors who would rather see a field than a cul-de-sac.

Why it exists. Oregon zoning keeps this land zoned for farming. It does not decide who farms it, or whether they can afford to. A generation of farmland is about to change hands, and ownership — not zoning — is the open question.

Built to be copied. Every document behind this organization — the acquisition criteria, the easement language, the partner lease, the stewardship fund math, the governance — is published openly so another valley can run the same play. Founded by Drew Keske.

The Oregon Paradox

The best-protected farmland in America. And a generation that can’t get onto it.

Oregon has run the country’s strongest statewide land-use program for fifty years. Exclusive Farm Use zoning and urban growth boundaries already keep most of this ground in agriculture — which is why Oregon land trusts largely aim their easements at habitat instead. Protection is not the gap. Price, succession, and access are. The land will stay farmland. The question is whose.

“Zoning decides what the land is. It doesn’t decide who gets to work it.”

Rows of hazelnut trees along a gravel lane in an Oregon orchard under a grey sky

~2/3

of Oregon's farmland expected to change hands within 20 years

Source: Oregon Agricultural Trust estimate

up to 80%

of Oregon farmers and ranchers have no succession plan

Source: Oregon Agricultural Trust estimate

TBD

farmland price per acre, Washington & Yamhill County

Source: Under review

Figures cited from published reporting; primary sources under review.

The Model at a Glance

Three fields, one rotation.

The old three-field rotation kept ground productive by giving each field a different job each year. Same idea here. Ground, work, commons — three jobs, one organization, turning in order.

01
Field One — Ground.
The asset.
We acquire farmland outright and record a permanent agricultural easement. Anchor parcels we intend to hold for good. Others we protect and sell on at agricultural value, so the capital comes back and buys the next one.
02
Field Two — Work.
The point.
Long leases at below-market rent to nonprofit and for-profit operators, with mission conditions written into the terms. Tenure secure enough that a partner can justify building a wash station or planting a perennial.
03
Field Three — Commons.
The multiplier.
Every template, agreement, and number published free for any valley to use. No affiliation required. No permission needed.

Our lane

Not a farm. Not a food bank. Not another easement holder. We own the ground and hand over the keys.

We are built to sit alongside the land trusts, training programs, and food organizations already working here — not to duplicate them.

By the Numbers

The shape of the organization.

Legal entity: Three Field Commons · 501(c)(3) in formation
Service area: Washington & Yamhill County, Oregon
Pilot geography: Forest Grove / Banks
Second geography: Newberg / McMinnville
First parcel target: TBD acres
Tenure model: Fee ownership + permanent agricultural easement; buy-protect-sell to recycle capital
Partner terms: Long-term lease, below-market rent, mission conditions written in
Startup capital: TBD
Stewardship fund: TBD per protected acre
Target first close: TBD
Founder: Drew Keske

Where We Work

Two valleys, in order.

A weathered wooden barn standing in an open field under an overcast sky

Tualatin Valley

Forest Grove, Banks, Cornelius, Gaston. Diverse small-scale agriculture, close to Portland markets, a working Latino farming community, and land still within reach. This is where we start.

Two hands cupping dark, damp soil above a garden bed

Yamhill Valley

Newberg, McMinnville, Dundee. We expect acquisition to be harder here and succession gifts to matter more, but that is a working assumption we have not tested yet. Second, not first.

Mission

Three Field Commons keeps farmland in farming and in reach — held in common, worked by the people who feed these valleys, and open for any valley to copy.

A Family of Concepts

One thesis. Four layers.

Three Field Commons is one of four food-system concepts by the same founder. They aren’t chapters of one organization and they aren’t sited in the same place — each is planned for the ground it fits. What they share is a thesis: that local food systems fail at specific, fixable points, and that the fix is usually infrastructure somebody has to own.

The land layer