The Centre for Natural Burial

Could be country’s first cemetery where bodies decompose naturally and a tree is planted overtop instead of a headstone

By SCOTT DUNN, The Sun Times

Paisley could be the location of Canada’s first natural burial cemetery.

Going “natural” dispenses with expensive caskets and there’s no embalming. It’s a burial with a simpler casket or shroud with an added twist. On each grave would be a tree, not a headstone, said Mike Salisbury, co-founder of The Natural Burial Co-operative Inc.

The 97-acre site is on the southeast edge of Paisley, by the Saugeen River. If the cemetery is created, former agricultural land will become a forest, with walking paths and places to sit and central monuments with the names of who are buried there.

Paisley is being considered because the property owner, Ken Coe of Waterloo, approached the co-operative. He and his wife planted some 30,000 trees on the property, with a view to doing something for the environment and possibly retiring there.

When they had second thoughts about living there, they learned of the co-op’s plans and proposed their land.

“That was actually natural forest before it was taken over by agriculture. It was so thick that people couldn’t land their rafts on the river, the forest was so thick.”

Salisbury, a landscape architect and Guelph city councillor, will present the concept to Arran-Elderslie council during a public meeting Monday at 10 a.m. in the municipal offices in Chesley.

Salisbury said people are growing unsatisfied with the way burials are traditionally done. It’s the isolation of it, casket sealed tight, often in a cement vault that nothing can penetrate. Cremation pollutes and consumes huge amounts of energy, he added.

“But if I’m actually allowed to decompose and a tree is planted overtop of me and some of my molecules end up in a berry that a bird picks off a tree and feeds its young, I’m effectively living forever.”

He wouldn’t speculate on burial costs, but said “it’s not expected to be significantly less because the land cost and the cost of digging the hole will be the same as anything else.”

The cost-savings come from the simpler casket, lack of embalming and cement burial vault.

He said until mass casualties during the American Civil War led to embalming bodies to preserve them on the trip home, people were buried in this simple way. They still are in some parts of the world, but the idea of creating a nature reserve and “using your body as fertilizer” began in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. There are 200 natural burial cemeteries in the UK, where Salisbury says about 20 per cent of all burials there occur.

Salisbury incorporated the co-op on Earth Day in 2006, the website at www.naturalburial.coop/canada/ says. He has invested $2,000 and three years of his time in the project, he said, and more investors are being sought.

To be buried in the cemetery or buy a shroud or biodegradable casket the co-op will develop, one must first pay a $25 fee and become a member.

The funeral business is a multi-billion dollar industry and Salisbury said he thinks there’s money to be made in natural burials too.

The co-op has 125 members and more than 3,000 people around the world have registered to receive e-mail updates, according to Susan Rawlinson, another co-founder of the co-op.

The property has been inspected by the Grey Bruce Health Unit, which he said has no objections at this time based on an examination of the soils and water table, Salisbury said.

He’ll need an official plan amendment, issued by Bruce County, a zoning bylaw amendment, issued by Arran-Elderslie, and a cemetery licence, issued by the province, said Bruce County planner Sabine Hammel.

Typically county approval, which usually takes three to four months after the application is made, comes first.