DOWN TO EARTH

Green cemeteries take a final step back to nature
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald - July 19, 2008

After a lifetime of recycling, composting, turning down the thermostat and trying to eat local organic food, some people might not want to leave their bodies to be filled with a chemical preservative and buried in steel and concrete, or even cremated in a gas-fired furnace.

Now they have a couple more options.

Maine's two green cemeteries -- natural burial grounds that don't allow embalming or steel caskets -- are open for business. And they're getting some.

For the rest of the story

Maine a pioneer in green cemeteries

Peter McHugh’s 150-acre tree farm already contains a small graveyard, and now he has Cedar Brook Burial Ground, about 20 miles west of Portland, ready to do business as a green cemetery.

There are seven green cemeteries in the United States, according to national experts.

A green cemetery contains people buried in simple graves, usually in natural, forested areas. Bodies are wrapped in shrouds or placed in wicker or pine coffins. The cemeteries do not accept bodies containing formaldehyde or other embalming chemicals, and they don't accept metal coffins or use concrete vaults.

They also don't have manicured, fertilized lawns or polished granite monuments.

From an article by John Richardson, Staff Writer, October 28, 2007 in the Maine Sunday Telegram

Note: 2.25 acres are devoted to Cedar Brook Burial Ground 2.25 acres devoted to the cemetery with more acorage available when the need arises.