The story below is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: The tubes hold new seedlings. ©Dan Smith
A farm in Stewartsville will become a sanctuary for native trees, including the American Chestnut.
It is not every day that one has the opportunity to rescue a family treasure and, in doing so, improve the environment and learn a little history. Mark Ferguson can tell you about it.
His ancestors’ 225-acre farm in Bedford County slipped out of his immediate family’s ownership a few years ago — going to a cousin — and he was presented with the opportunity to retrieve it — and the old homeplace — which still stands. He leapt at the opportunity and has created a sanctuary for newly-planted trees, creating a semblance of the native forest that once was a part of the property.
These 8,500 new trees will not be for sale when they mature. They will remain a haven for wildlife and for the cleaner natural environment that has been replaced for many years. He and his husband, Alexander Dykes, are in the process of restoring the farm to the land his ancestors cleared 175 years ago. About 35 acres of it will be home to native trees, some of which will be American Chestnut hybrids that were erased by a disease.
The first owner of the farm was Ferguson’s third great-grandfather, who bought it in 1850 for $4. Helping to sustain the farm were a group of slaves — a fact that makes both Ferguson and Dykes uncomfortable. Among the enslaved was a woman who was Booker T. Washington’s aunt, according to Ferguson, and descendants remain involved with the property.
“The Dearing land and the people who lived on it represent Virginia’s complex racial dynamic and the growing commitment among institutions and individuals to better represent Black history,” says Ferguson.
The project will cost about $100,000, says Ferguson, most of which is provided by six government agencies (including the USDA). “We are in the final stages of conservancy easement,” Ferguson says. This is not a unique program. “It’s been around for a while,” says Ferguson, but, he insists, “I’m told this is the single biggest individual project [of this type] anybody can remember.” Many of the others are corporation-generated.
©Mark Lynn Ferguson
Ferguson and Dykes are small business professionals who own a makers’ market in downtown Roanoke and an online magazine. They live both here and in Alexandria. Ferguson has written for various publications about Appalachia for 14 years. The couple counts “the thrill of rebuilding a forest” among their blessings. And, of course, the history is especially meaningful.
The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
