The Centre for Natural Burial

By Nok-Noi Ricker,  Bangor Daily News

A “green” cemetery, where bodies are embalmed with nontoxic fluids and caskets are biodegradable, gained planning board approval last week and is believed to be the first in Maine, Dick Harriman, Orrington code enforcement officer, said Monday.

“As far as I know, it’s the only one,” he said.

Operators hope to begin burying people this fall at the Rainbow’s End Cemetery, which sits on 13.7 pristine acres along the Penobscot River off Mill Creek Road.

A green cemetery requires that bodies not be embalmed at all or be embalmed with nontoxic fluid or cremated, caskets be biodegradable, and graves be marked only by simple, flat native stones, with or without engravings. Native vegetation also could be used to replace conventional gravestones.

The idea is to let the natural landscape remain undisturbed, while providing a sanctuary for the living who come to visit, Joan Howard, an abutting landowner to the property, has said.

Two concerns that planners raised and selectmen have dealt with is how the cemetery’s board of directors would identify the location of graves and what would happen if the board disbanded.

“We’ll need to know where the veterans are so we can put up a flag” on Memorial Day, Harriman said.

In initial documents, the cemetery board had asked the town to take over ownership, which was declined, and then the property owner’s next of kin was suggested.

After review by the town attorney, it was “recommended it be a similar organization — not the next of kin or the town,” Chairman Louis Morin said.

Ellen Hills, a Solon resident in her mid-80s, is a retired nurse and schoolteacher who came up with the idea for the green cemetery after reading an AARP article in July 2004. She has said she wants to preserve the land her family has owned since the 1800s.

Ellen and James Hills and Auburn-based Funeral Consumers Alliance of Maine have worked with area landowners to create the natural cemetery.

“The shareholders can start meeting as a board now,” Morin said.

The Planning Board is requiring the operators to file an updated site plan with a parking area designated, Harriman said. The shareholders still need to file paperwork for their corporate charter and non-profit and tax-exempt status before beginning burials this fall, he said.