CASANFRA-L Archives

From: carolyn <>
Subject: ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT CEMETERY................
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 06:01:51 -0700

The state's first environmentally correct cemetery will open soon in
Marin County, offering sanctuary for both the living and the dead.

The site will ban embalming fluids, tombstones and metal caskets.
Instead, the dead can be buried in a wooden box, a shroud, a favorite
blanket or nothing at all. Graves may be hand-dug by mourners. Native
rocks and plants will be used as grave markers.

The 32-acre ``memorial nature preserve,'' perched on a hillside with
views of Mount Tamalpais, is on the forefront of the nation's ``green
burial'' movement, striving to save land as it creates human
compost..............

The Marin County site is the former Daphne Fernwood Cemetery, a historic
but down-at-the-heels spot. Broken concrete slabs, tilting headstones
and dark woods create a spooky mood. Graves date to the 1880s, holding
early settlers with ties to the long-gone Sausalito Land & Ferry Co.
Under the new management, the existing graves will remain.


The state of California does not require that dead people be embalmed or
put in caskets. It requires that people be buried at least 18 inches
deep, according to the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. Graves should
be an appropriate distance from moving water, depending on the hydrology
of the site.

the complete article here........
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/8824352.htm

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• ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT CEMETERY................ by carolyn <>