Three Field Commons.

Three Field Commons.

Held for good.

A farmland-holding nonprofit buying ground in Oregon’s Tualatin and Yamhill valleys, protecting it permanently, and leasing it long and low to the people already feeding these towns.

Where
Washington & Yamhill County, Oregon
Status
501(c)(3) in formation

The paradox

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

Oregon’s land-use program keeps this ground zoned for farming. It does not decide who farms it, or whether they can afford to.

~2/3

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

Oregon Agricultural Trust estimate

up to 80%

of Oregon farmers and ranchers have no succession plan

Oregon Agricultural Trust estimate

What we do

  1. One

    We acquire farmland and protect it permanently.

  2. Two

    We lease it long and low to the people already feeding these towns.

We do not farm. We do not run programs. We hold the ground.

The three fields

Where the name comes from.

Old rotations worked three fields at once. Ours are ground, work, and the commons of what we learn.

Field One — Ground

The asset.

Land bought and permanently restricted to agriculture, so the protection outlives every future owner.

Field Two — Work

The point.

An operator on the ground on a long, low lease — growing food, training farmers, feeding these towns.

Field Three — Commons

The multiplier.

The model published in full, so the next valley does not have to invent it again.

The two valleys

Two valleys, in order.

Tualatin Valley — first

Forest Grove, Banks, Cornelius, Gaston.

First because the ground is close to the people it would feed, and the pressure on it comes from the metro edge rather than from vineyards.

Yamhill Valley — second

Newberg, McMinnville, Dundee.

Second because wine-country land values make acquisition harder, so we go there once the model has closed a parcel and can be shown rather than described.

Cultivated fields and hedgerows in Oregon's Willamette Valley under overcast light

How the money works

Four streams.

  • Acquisition capital

    TBD

    Gifts and grants that buy the parcel outright, plus the diligence a closing requires.

  • Stewardship fund, per parcel

    TBD

    Held long-term so fences, drainage, monitoring, and taxes never force a sale.

  • Lease income

    TBD

    Below-market rent from partners, sized to cover holding costs rather than earn a return.

  • Easement sales and public conservation funding

    TBD

    Recovering part of the development value we retire, and recycling it into the next parcel.

The spread between market value and agricultural value is the cost of protection. That spread is what we are raising against.

Why now

Land changing hands is the only moment ownership is actually decidable.

Zoning here is settled. Ownership is not. A farm can stay zoned for agriculture and still end up in the hands of whoever can pay the most for it.

The succession wave is the window. It is open now rather than later, and it closes parcel by parcel as each one sells to someone else.

What we need

Four things.

Capital

Acquisition money that can move when a parcel does, and stewardship money behind it. Amounts TBD.

A first parcel

One farm in either valley, from an owner deciding what happens next. Water, access, and a willing seller matter more than size.

A first partner

One operator who would sign a multi-year lease and build on ground they do not own.

A board

People who know farmland, conservation law, and this region. Forming now.

What it changes

A wash station stops being a bad idea.

Permanent ground for programs that currently rent year to year — a training cohort that can plan past one season, a food-access grower who is not looking for new fields every spring.

And infrastructure that finally makes sense to build. Coolers, wash-pack, greenhouses, irrigation, perennial plantings: all of it pencils out when the tenure is long and the land cannot be sold out from under it.

A working barn and outbuildings at the edge of a valley field

Who’s building it

Drew Keske, founder.

Founder bio

To be supplied.

Board

Forming. Names will appear here when people have actually agreed to serve, and not before.

Contact

If any of this is yours to help with, say so.

Landowner, operator, funder, or someone who knows this ground better than we do — the useful next step is a conversation, not a donation.

I own landI’d farm itI’d fund it

REPLACE_ME@example.com

Three Field Commons · Drew Keske, founder · Washington & Yamhill County, Oregon · 501(c)(3) in formation