The Centre for Natural Burial

BY EMILIA ASKARI, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

For generations, metro Detroit families have visited Addison Township’s Upland Hills Farm for hayrides, Christmas trees and harvest festivals. Soon, some may be visiting the farm for graveside memorial services.

With a grant from the state, Oakland County parks officials are negotiating with Upland Hills’ owners to buy the farm and turn a small part of the 230-acre plot into the state’s first green burial ground.

The details have yet to be worked out, but the burial ground could be about the size of 20 football fields, surrounded by a larger nature preserve and perhaps a small demonstration farm.

The new cemetery likely will feature native prairie grasses instead of mowed lawns, engraved rocks instead of headstones and biodegradable wood or wicker coffins that cost $1,000 or less instead of more expensive wood or metal ones that can cost as much as $35,000, experts said.

Environmentally conscious Michiganders also are beginning to explore green funeral options including not using formaldehyde to embalm bodies, using a biodegradable coffin and skipping the traditional concrete burial vaults.

Michigan has 24 funeral homes offering green funeral services — more than any other state, according to Joe Sehee, director of the New Mexico-based Green Burial Council. Sehee, 47, grew up in Harper Woods and founded the council almost four years ago.

Sehee said 71 funeral homes have registered with the council nationally since it formed. And there are 10 known green cemeteries nationally, he said.

“This is the way most of humanity cared for its dead for many years,” he said.

But in current traditional funerals, Americans bury enough metal yearly to build the Golden Gate Bridge, enough embalming fluid to fill an Olympic pool and enough concrete to build a two-lane road from New York to Detroit, Sehee said.

Sehee is expected to speak about the green burial trend this month at the Oakland County planning department’s annual heritage preservation conference. In October, he’s to give a similar presentation to the annual meeting of the Michigan Funeral Directors Association.

“When you first hear of this, it sounds kind of bizarre,” county planner Jim Keglovitz said. “But it sure is intriguing when you hear the details.”

Tom Lynch, a Milford funeral director, said his family’s chain of metro Detroit funeral homes is happy to offer customers green funeral choices, even if that means selling fewer expensive metal caskets.

“I’ve answered questions from other funeral directors in the area about this,” Lynch said earlier this month. “I tell them, ‘This is not something you have to be afraid of. This is not going to put you out of business. It’s just a different way of doing things.’ ”

Donna Folland, executive director of the Rochester-based Six Rivers Regional Land Conservancy, has spoken with her daughters about her wish to have a green funeral and burial.

“When I was first introduced to the concept a couple of years ago, I kind of went ‘Ew,’ ” Folland said.

But the idea grew on her. Now, the 51-year-old Romeo resident said, “laying my remains in a natural area is a very pleasing thought to me.”

Contact EMILIA ASKARI at 248-351-3298 or eaksari@freepress.com.