BALDWIN HILL CONSERVATION BURIAL GROUND

www.baldwinhillcemetery.org

by Theresa Kerchner, Executive Director

Adapted from KLT News, Fall, 2019

With the acquisition of 90 acres in the spring of 2019, KLT now owns or holds conservation easements on 448 contiguous acres of valuable farmland, forestland, and wetlands near Baldwin Hill in Fayette. What’s more, after three years of planning and research we’re in the process of designing an eight-acre conservation burial ground on the northeastern portion of​​ this new property. KLT’s Baldwin Hill Conservation Burial Ground, soon to be incorporated as a 501(c)(13) non-profit, will provide for ecologically sound burial for people of all faiths.

I learned of conservation burial in a 2007 article in the Land Trust Alliance’s magazine, Saving Land. The essay highlighted the ecological benefits of “green” burial and profiled the Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina, the first conservation burial ground in the United States. Almost a decade after I read that essay, two KLT summer interns, Josh Caldwell (Bates College) and Jack Daley (Harvard College), focused their research projects on this topic and helped us move the initiative from an idea to a tangible proposal for the Board of Directors.

As interns and staff researched the concept of conservation burial, we sought technical support and guidance from Maine State Soil Scientist Dave Rocque, as well as from Cedar Brook and Rainbow’s End burial grounds in Maine, several funeral home businesses, our land trust conservation colleagues, Jeff Masten of LANDMATTERS, the Green Burial Council, the Maine Funeral Consumers Alliance, and community members. KLT members Paul Kuehnert and Judith Graber provided generous support for the project in 2017, with matching gifts from Paul’s employer, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The planning process, which has fostered new partnerships across community, business, government, and conservation organizations, created a strong foundation for the project.

As we consulted with experts in Maine and across the country, we came back to one key finding: conservation burial is traditional burial, a practice that has been followed for thousands of years. The use of chemical embalming fluids and energy-intensive cement vaults is relatively new, and our society is still coming to terms with the environmental impacts of these modern burial practices. KLT is proud that we will be providing an ecologically sound model for burial and serving our members in a meaningful way at the end of life.

On the operations end, KLT will manage the burial ground and coordinate plot sales, and we are partnering with local funeral homes that have established expertise with grief support, memorial services, transportation of the deceased, and sexton burial services. Once the cemetery is open (2021), grave-digging and interment will be carried out by a contractor. Graves will be approximately three feet deep, since the majority of the microbial activity in soils takes place within the upper soil horizons and in the organic duff layer. Native stones can be engraved to mark grave sites, and each plot will have a GPS point on a survey. 

KLT Stewardship Director Jean-Luc Theriault has been coordinating site preparation, including a timber harvest, the development of a scenic viewshed, the construction of a year-round road and parking area, planning for trails (including contracts for an accessible trail), and plot surveying.

When I picture this KLT property, I know it will be a place where people will celebrate life and the beauty of the natural world, something I think we all hope for at the end of our lives. Please contact the KLT office if you have questions. We will be updating our website with information about fees and our conservation burial partners.


Photo: Norm Rodrigue