The Centre for Natural Burial

By Bruce Ritchie, Tallahassee Democrat

Fran Sullivan-Fahs has a worm composting bin where she recycles fruit peels and other kitchen scraps. She gives away worms as Christmas presents to other gardeners. So when she dies, Sullivan-Fahs says, she wants to be put in a plain wooden casket and buried without a vault to encourage decomposition. She also doesn’t want to be embalmed because it involves chemicals.

“If you are going to live your life as an environmentalist, what about your exit?” she asked. “It is the ultimate in recycling to recycle one’s self.”

Sullivan-Fahs also is program co-chairwoman for the local Sierra Club group, which has invited John and Barbara Wilkerson to speak Monday about environmentally friendly burials. They operate the Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve near DeFuniak Springs.

At Glendale, bodies are buried among planted pine trees without vaults. Caskets are optional, John Wilkerson, the preserve’s steward, told the Democrat this week. Embalmed bodies are not allowed.

Sullivan-Fahs said she also doesn’t want to be cremated because that uses energy and produces air pollution.

State law doesn’t require anyone to be buried with a vault or a casket, said Tim Wheaton, financial control analyst in the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services.

A cemetery under state law can require a vault or a casket, Wheaton said.

Wilkerson said people have been “tricked” into thinking caskets and vaults always are required.

“I don’t want to be a funeral-home basher - in many cases they will say, ‘No you don’t want to do that’ and let you believe you can’t do that,” Wilkerson said. “So you have to go there armed with some information and a conviction.”

State law does require a body to be embalmed or refrigerated within 24 hours, Wheaton said, unless it is buried within that time period.

Todd Wahlquist, manager of the Bevis Funeral Home in Tallahassee, said he’ll try to accommodate whatever a family wants for their loved ones.

He said city cemeteries don’t require a vault but some other private cemeteries do. He said if someone doesn’t want a casket, that’s up to them.

“We are here to do anything as long as it’s not illegal or immoral,” Wahlquist said.

But he added that he personally doesn’t like the idea of having his family members buried without a casket and a vault - and others may not, either.

“I don’t want water and dirt sloshing around in a casket with my loved one,” he said.

Funeral home and cemetery operator Greg Brudnicki of Panama City said he’s concerned that someone could fall into a grave if it sinks and collapses without a vault. He’s president of Carriage Services of Florida and chairman of the Florida Board of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services.

“The biggest problem you have with a cemetery is to maintain them so people can go back and see where all their loved ones are buried,” Brudnicki said. “Who is going to maintain it if it is going to stay in its natural state?”

Wilkerson said all the dirt that’s dug up for a grave at Glendale Nature Preserve is put back to prevent a collapse.

Glendale isn’t a regulated cemetery under state law because it doesn’t charge for burial plots, said Richard Brinkley, assistant director of the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services.

Wilkerson said his nonprofit Glendale Nature Preserve charges $1,000 for opening and closing the grave.

Brinkley said he doesn’t know how many church and family cemeteries there are scattered around the state. The state, he said, regulates 172 cemeteries.

A cemetary also is exempted from regulations if it covers less than 30 acres or if it is owned by a church government agency, Brinkley said.

Wilkerson said there is no assurance any cemetery will be well cared for in the future. He said the best way for somebody to be convinced they’re not a fly-by-night operation is to come and visit.

“If we can’t convince you, we ain’t doing something right,” Wilkerson said.

Funeral homes don’t need to be involved as long as people have a place to keep the body refrigerated, Wilkerson said. The Glendale Web site offers guidance for people who want to take custody of a body until it is buried.

Wilkerson said Glendale is just helping people bury their loved ones the way they did for hundreds of years.

He and his brother had buried their parents on their 350-acre family farm in plain pine boxes before 2000 when they began worrying they would lose the farm because of taxes. Until last year, they grew chufa, a crop grown to attract wild turkeys, in addition to their planted pine trees.

Wilkerson said he expects ecologically friendly burials to grow in popularity. He said his is the first in Florida billing itself as a green cemetery, and he says there are at least six in the nation.

“We’ve had hundreds of verbal commitments to the effect, ‘We’ll be back, dead or alive,’ from people who have been here or e-mailed,” he said.