Agricultural company Craig F. Coleman Inc. is taking control of 118 acres at the Port Westward Industrial Park under a new lease agreement with the Port of Columbia County, the northwest Oregon port announced July 16.
The port finalized the lease agreement with Craig F. Coleman for the land, which Lower Columbia Tree Farm previously had the timber rights to when the port acquired the property in 2009. Crops and livestock grazing are allowed under the lease.
“The ground we bought will eventually be in blueberries, which is mainly what we do,” company owner Craig Coleman said. “We also raise 15 different crops that change from year to year depending on economics.”
Coleman, who began farming in 1982, works with his son on 1,800 acres near Hermiston, Ore. In 2023, he bought 300 acres from the Beaver Drainage Improvement Company, which manages the levee and canal systems of Oregon’s Beaver District.
“We raise quite a few acres of blueberries in the Hermiston-Boardman area, and that’s one of the reasons we came here,” Coleman said. “The pH is like blueberries’ native soil.”
Coleman said he plans to prepare the land for agriculture in the lease’s first year, removing wood debris and grounding stumps before planting grass seed. He intends to add crops based on market demand, the port said.
This is the port’s third agricultural lease at Port Westward, which has so far leased 572 acres.
In 2020, the port leased 211 acres for mint production and cattle grazing to Warren and Caryn Seely and 243 acres for cattle grazing to Columbia River Ranch.
“This agreement represents our ongoing commitment to agriculture and local farms,” Port Executive Director Sean Clark said.
