Driving north from the skyscrapers and stadiums of downtown Detroit to
Upland Hills Farm, just north of Rochester in Addison Township, is a study in quick transitions: from urban core to suburban sprawl to rolling pastures and forests in 45 minutes.
But just when you think you are beyond the reach of development, you catch a glimpse of subdivisions with names like Oaks of Oakland stealthily sneaking in between the barns and plowed fields. And not just in northern Oakland County, it’s eating away at the entire seven-county metropolitan planning region.
With many of our elected leaders fiddling while Rome is burning, SE Michigan's inhabited land area has more than doubled since the 1960's — but our population has increased less than 10%. We are losing farmland and forests at an alarming pace while stretching our water supply to the max.
Here on the outer edge of the sprawl, the Oakland Land Conservancy is buying up and otherwise protecting undeveloped land in order to keep it, well, undeveloped.
And in the case of Upland Hills Farm, to protect the land, they are working with the county, the state, the farmer/landowner and…the United States Green Burial Council.
Death to sprawl, anyone?
Green burials
Joe Sehee, the executive director of USGBC, didn't grow up talking excitedly about death au naturel. Though he now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was born in Detroit. He has been, at various points in his life, a Jesuit lay minister, a Peabody Award-winning journalist and a national fellow at the Environmental Leadership Program.
In some ways, all his work led him to the world of green burials; one of the few places where environmentalism and spiritualism intersect.
He explains the growing attraction that people—including, memorably, Six Feet Under's Nate Fisher, who buried his shrouded wife under a Joshua tree—are having to the concept of returning to the earth un-embalmed and un-casketed: "It's your last act on earth, and it has almost religious implications. It can connect you—it's far bigger than just buying a burial plot."
But what is green burial? Is it even legal to just put a body in the ground? Won't it contaminate the groundwater? And, by the way, ew.
The basic tenets of green burial call for no embalming and the use of a casket or container that will decompose (i.e., shrouds, cardboard or simple wooden caskets).
Embalming hasn't always been the norm. It was Abraham Lincoln's funeral train that brought the chemistry to the masses—and what's ironic is that refrigeration actually renders embalming totally unnecessary. The European Union has announced a outright ban on formaldehyde as of 2010, citing its carcinogenic qualities. In the U.S., embalming fluid is required by law only in extremely rare circumstances, yet still-grieving families are convinced by the funeral industry to do it. Why? Because the process can up the price by nearly $3,000.
Sehee sees embalming as one more way that death has become commoditized. "People need to be able to reclaim and reinvent rituals." He feels like the status quo "makes people deal with someone who is a salesperson. The body is whisked away…"
Another purely wasteful aspect of the modern burial are the containers. Coffins are one thing, the concrete vault in which the coffin is placed is another. No laws call for their use, yet they have become ubiquitous with burials.
Sehee often uses the following statistic in presentations: Each year in the United States, coffins and vaults result in more metal being put in the ground than was used to make the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.
Break on through to the greener side
The growing trend in home funerals attests to people—particularly baby boomers— rejecting this norm. "This is the same generation that changed birth," Sehee observes, citing an increase in midwives and fathers involved with child-rearing. "That's what is happening here—they are asking why they can't be more involved. Sustainability is one good reason [for green burials], but there is much more that is beneficial to the individual."
As for the concern about groundwater contamination, there has been extensive real-world experience on burial techniques, pioneered in this country by Dr. Billy Campbell, one of Sehee's mentors. Campbell, a physician and cemeterian, opened Ramsey Creek Preserve natural burial ground in South Carolina in 1998. Campbell has found that filling in graves with twigs and sticks creates "channels" that encourages decomposed matter to rise to the surface of the soil—and that mounding techniques similar to those common to those of Native Americans compensates for the natural tendency of graves to sink.
At natural cemeteries, graves are sometimes marked with flat stones and/or native plantings. If not marked, gravesites are found with the help of GPS systems. The preserve-like setting lends itself to hiking and picnicking, a pleasant place to pay homage to a loved one that has passed.
Efforts to bring the concept of green burials to the mainstream funeral industry failed in the past, which is what prompted the creation of USGBC in 2005. Sehee is attempting to learn from the movement's failures and is engaging consumers and the funeral industry. Sehee's board includes not only ecologists and environmentalists, but a representative from AARP. They work extensively with the funeral industry to make standards amenable, plausible yet still true to the "green" ideals they espouse. "We want to engage them, not threaten them," Sehee says.
In Sehee's neck of the woods, USGBC has certified its first conservation burial ground in the Galisteo Basin of Santa Fe. The organization is now working to establish green cremation standards, which will require carbon offsetting for emissions generated during cremation and the removal of mercury fillings prior to cremation.
Eco Development
With hopes of certifying one natural or conservation burial ground in each state, Sehee has found a golden opportunity here in his home state of Michigan. An old friend who is involved with the Upland Hills School alerted him to the site.
There are a few reasons the property is ideal for the concept. First, the landowner, Steve Webster, is an environmentally-conscious sort that likes the idea of his property never being developed into a subdivision or golf course. He admits, "If I got offered big bucks, I might do it (sell it to a developer), but I'd much rather see something good happen."
His parents started the farm in 1965, armed with socialist, cooperative organic ideals. Today, the 50-acre farm serves as an agricultural demonstration to young school children, teaching kids from all over Metro Detroit about chickens and eggs, lambs and wool, and where butter comes from.
What drew the Oakland Land Conservancy into the mix of interested parties is Upland Hills' prime habitat location. It sits in the armpit of Addison Oaks County Park and Bald Mountain State Recreation Area, making it an important corridor for wildlife.
The role that green burials can play in this conservation is as a funding mechanism. In these days of diminished federal and state funds for land acquisition, shrewd thinking like this becomes mandatory. Sehee says, "Land conservation used to be between two parties. Now, it's the state, the county, donors and landowners."
The OLC can place a legal mechanism called a conservation easement on the property, ensuring that whatever limited development—including the green burial ground—is planned for the land, it sticks to the tenets of the agreed-upon master plan. Basically, it can't get flipped in ten years.
Master planning for the Upland Hills land has just begun, but some basic concepts being considered are that the farm itself would remain, operated by Oakland County as an educational facility. The green burial grounds would occupy about 10 acres. All of these things facilitate the strict habitat conservation of 50-100 acres of the land.
Webster sees this as the evolution of environmentalism to sustainability. As a businessperson—albeit one with a pretty healthy communion with the earth—he says, "I have to watch my bottom line. Sustainability is about that too."
Yes, in Michigan
The boon for Michigan is that there is burgeoning evidence that this type of development can be a tool for economic development. AARP is getting increasingly involved in the issue of the death care industry as its numbers swell with take-charge Boomers.
Sehee observes, "They've transformed every cultural milestone and they care about the planet and their legacy. At Ramsey Creek, two-thirds of the burials come from out-of-state."
Although no law currently precludes natural burials, he is beginning to work with state legislators to incentivize the operation—another nudge, instead of push, to the funeral industry.
One of Sehee's favorite quotes comes from USGBC board member William Jordan III, an ecologist widely credited with coining the term "restoration ecology." In his book, The Sunflower Forest, he writes, "Ultimately, the future of a natural ecosystem depends not on protection from humans but on its relationship with the people who inhabit it."
Kelli B. Kavanaugh is metromode's Innovation and Job News editor and Model D's development news editor. Her last article for metromode was Home Grown.
Photos:
Upland Hills Farm - Addison Township
Joe Sehee
Upland Hills School
Sheep on the farm
Rolling pasture
Photographs © Dave Krieger
Dave Krieger is managing photographer of Model D and a frequent contributor to metromode