With Bedford County farm, slave owner’s descendant finds a chance to restore forest and help heal wounds from history

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With Bedford County farm, slave owner’s descendant finds a chance to restore forest and help heal wounds from history

In Mark Ferguson‘s mind, the ecological degradation of his Bedford County farm is part and parcel with the human enslavement that once happened there as well. There’s the hillside once home to mighty chestnuts and oaks that was long ago clear-cut for pasture. There’s the stream and its eroded banks trodden by cattle on their way to defecate in its waters. And there’s the remains of the slave shack where his great-great-great-grandfather housed t…