American cemeteries usually look manicured and gothic, with iron, stone and rows of headstones. But what if cemeteries were more wild, with trails and animal habitat?
That’s Cheryl Fox and Shayna Starks’ pitch to Oakley City. Fox is the CEO of the Summit Land Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust, and Starks runs Starks Funeral Parlor in Millcreek. They believe in returning to the way humans used to bury their dead: returning bodies to the earth to decompose.
“It heals our planet. It's the best thing that we can do to absorb carbon and really nourish our planet,” Fox told the Oakley City Council April 24. “It's what our bodies were designed to do.”
She and Starks proposed a “conservation cemetery” on about 20 acres of city-owned land on the eastern edge of town, near Pinon Lane.
A conservation cemetery is a burial ground also protected by a conservation easement, which permanently prohibits development or environmental destruction.
Only 12 conservation cemeteries certified by the Green Burial Council exist in the United States.
Utah has “hybrid cemeteries”—traditional burial grounds with areas cordoned off for green burial—but no conservation cemeteries, the most eco-friendly cemetery designation.
Fox and Starks envision natural markers, like specially placed wood or vegetation, or simply GPS coordinates in place of headstones.
Bodies would not be embalmed and would be placed in biodegradable caskets or cloth. According to the Green Burial Council, decomposing bodies are not health risks with appropriate soil and water setbacks.
The conservation area could have public trails, and Fox also suggested a wall with the names of those buried there to inform visitors.
City Councilmember Joe Fraizer, also Summit County’s historian, admitted the idea initially sounded creepy.
“But the more I think about it, we may have—well, we likely have—people buried all over the valley from pre-cemetery days. And unless we dig them up with a backhoe, we're never gonna know they're there,” he said. “I'm not buying in yet, but I’m coming around to it.”
Councilmember Dave Neff wanted to make sure it doesn’t turn into an elitist cemetery of outsiders. Starks said Oakley residents would get a discount.
“That's customary in city cemeteries,” she said. “The assumption is that your property tax as a homeowner is going towards certain parks and cemeteries and schools.”
The proposed rates for outsiders are $3,000 presale and $3,500 at the time of need. Oakley City would get 60% of that, Fox and Starks said.
The proposed rates for Oakley residents were $2,500 presale and $2,800 at the time of need.
“I actually would like to see Oakley residents, for the part that we get, get a deeper discount than that,” Councilmember Tom Smart said. He also hopes Oakley residents who move away have a chance to qualify for reduced rates.
Although a plot could be purchased in advance, Fox said people would not be able to pick exactly where it is.
“We don't know when that person is going to finally need that, so we want to be able to really accommodate what the land needs,” she told the council.
Loved ones, especially spouses, will be buried near one another though.
The council resolved to have the city attorney check the cemetery proposal before it votes.
The 20 acres Fox believes could be a burial ground are on a larger 150-acre parcel. The land conservancy will speak with city officials about putting the entire property under a conservation easement.
