Dust to dust (and no more) Limington’s green cemetery

Peter McHugh rides his all-terrain vehicle across the 2.1 acres of 150-acre property he has recently devoted to creating Maine’s first green cemetery.

He points out prospective locations for burial sites – little spaces of cleared land marked only by brown fallen leaves amidst a forest of mostly bare trees. The throaty growl of McHugh’s vehicle interrupts the peaceful silence of the place, which descends again like a blanket after McHugh cuts the engine.

“It’s a very peaceful place,” McHugh says. “I want this land to be preserved forever.”

McHugh rides by eight graves fronted with a sign marking the place as the Joshua Small Cemetery. The graves date back as far as 1812. A large rock sits next to the cemetery.

“That’s mine,” McHugh says. “That’s where I will be buried.”

Maine law allows small family graveyards no larger than a quarter-acre without the need for a permit, as long as no bodies are buried within 25 rods (413 feet) from the nearest land used for public recreation or potable water source. However, some years ago, McHugh decided he wanted to create a cemetery that gives others the option to be buried in a more natural fashion than otherwise available.

“I wanted to give people the option to be buried in the way they prefer,” McHugh says. “If they prefer a more environmentally friendly, less costly method of burial, then they should have that option.”

The town of Limington has no local ordinances regarding the development of commercial cemeteries, so McHugh needed only to apply to the state. In September, McHugh registered his cemetery – named the Cedar Brook Burial Ground after a local topographical feature – with the Department of Health and Human Services. McHugh says it took only about 10 days after the submission of his application to receive notice of his registration as a cemetery.

Though an organization in New Mexico called the Green Burial Council has created green burial certification standards, certification is not required to create a green cemetery, according to McHugh. General standards of green cemeteries, as outlined by the Green Burial Council, include only accepting bodies which have not been treated with embalming fluids, burying them in shrouds or biodegradable caskets, and using a simple headstone, or none at all. Green cemeteries are generally left in their natural state, so no fertilizer is used to green the lawns and no extensive landscaping is done to alter the natural scenery.

McHugh allows customers to choose their own space in his cemetery, and to mark the spot with any local stone, which he says he will allow to be engraved. He says he will allow unlimited visitations by anyone interested.

McHugh was inspired by an article in Common Ground Magazine he read by Jaye Christiansen, entitled, “The eco way to go,” which lists the statistics of waste normal burials have put into American ground.

“Last year 22,500 cemeteries across the US buried 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 104,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods and 1.6 million tons of concrete,” Christensen says. “In purely ecological terms, how we bury our dead is unsustainable.”

Mark Harris, author of the book “Grave Matters,” an examination of alternative methods of burial, said green cemeteries are becoming more popular in America because they are easier on the environment.

“The modern cemetery is less a natural, bucolic resting ground for the dead Cemetery than a landfill of largely toxic and mostly nonbiodegradable materials,” Harris said. “With green burials, the body decays quickly and naturally, allowing the body to rejoin the cycle of life regenerating its resources back into nature.”

Harris said the chemicals used in modern embalming procedures include a mixture of formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol, all three of which are dangerous to animals and humans. Methanol and ethanol are both toxic, and formaldehyde is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Green cemeteries also preserve land from future development, Harris said.

“Green cemeteries act as a powerful land conservation tool,” Harris said. “Once land is designated as a cemetery, it becomes very difficult to develop. If you want to save land from bulldozers, there’s few better ways than turning it into a cemetery.”

Green burials can also help save a different kind of green – the kind found in people’s wallets.

“Between charges for embalming, a metal casket, a vault, a headstone, the cemetery charges for a plot and the opening and closing of a grave, and the fee for perpetual care and maintenance of the gravesite, funeral costs today can easily run $10,000 or more,” Harris said. “Green burials, in contrast, run in the low thousands of dollars, and can be less depending on personal choices. So the cost differential is huge.”

McHugh says saving on funeral costs is a significant factor in choosing a green burial ground.

“It’s a simpler, less costly way to bury your loved one,” McHugh says. “Traditional funerals can get very expensive. I wanted to give people another option.”

McHugh prices his plots at $800 apiece, or $1400 per couple, with pet burials at no extra charge. For New Englanders, McHugh’s Cedar Brook Burial Ground is the first, and currently only option for a green burial, though another green cemetery will soon be opening in Orrington.

Only five other green cemeteries exist in the country – they are in upstate New York, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and California. Five others, including Rainbow’s End in Orrington, are under development and will open soon. McHugh says he is not off-put by the idea of bodies buried near his own house, which is located close to the burial ground.

“It’s a very natural thing, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” McHugh says. “I don't think they'll be having any loud parties late at night.” Though no one has yet been buried in McHugh’s cemetery, he says he has received many phone calls expressing interest. “We only just opened 45 days ago,” McHugh said “I believe there will be a rising, significant amount of interest in green burials.” Harris agrees green burials will soon become more pervasive in coming years.

“I think they have the potential to go mainstream,” Harris said. “I think not only will you see more green cemeteries opening up, but you will also see existing cemeteries offering more green options. The values that lead people to choose a green burial have wide appeal beyond the environmentalists among us. When people begin to see the many values, green and alternative burial choices will take on widespread popularity.”

Harris says he thinks the popularity of green burials will increase when people begin to understand green burials really aren’t anything new, but rather a return to an American tradition.

“This is the way we used to bury people one hundred years ago. It’s a return to a simpler form of burial that we once used in this country,” Harris said.

Contemporary embalming methods evolved during the American Civil War, as the need arose to preserve the bodies of fallen soldiers for the time it took to transport them back home for burial.

McHugh said every American should think about how they want their body taken care of after their death.

“Death is going to happen to everybody,” McHugh says. “I don’t know of anyone yet who has escaped it.