By: Jean Johnson for Medtech1The front page of the New York Times captured the northern California Mill Valley scene where eco-internment can cost from a few hundred to upwards of $15,000 for prime spots.
“Tommy Odum’s remains lie on a step wind-swept hill at Forever Fernwood, beneath an oak sapling, a piece of petrified wood and a bundle of dried sage tied with a lavender ribbon.”
It had to happen. Baby boomers who have balked at middle norms at every turn since they came of age in the late sixties have most recently announced that they don’t find the straight funeral gig very hip either. “We may have taken a breather after the height of the sixties burned out,” said Pete Jones enjoying a sidewalk coffee at one of Portland’s single-owner espresso shops, “but we never rejoined the insanity. Just look, the Stones are taking another world tour – Mick Jagger on stage at 60! And Eric Clapton got Cream back together for a concert in England earlier this summer. Point is we’re still rockers, we don’t feed off the tube any more than we ever did, and we’ve scraped a few bucks together over the years to do things our own way more than ever.”
Expectedly the move toward ecologically-friendly burials without artifice and hype – described as “Nearer My Sod to Thee” by the Los Angeles Times – are coming on strong in California. What’s on the unusual side, though, is that the pioneer of the movement, Billy Campbell, M.D., is right out of Westminster, South Carolina.
Outside the small town of 2,500 Campbell established the first green burial grounds in the United States at the 350-acre Ramsey Creek Preserve. There, as an alternative to traditional cemeteries families can bury their loved ones in the woods in biodegradable coffins or cremation urns without embalming and other status quo trappings.
Campbell has since spread is his wings, though, initially consulting on Fernwood and most recently forming a non-profit group, the Center for Ethical Burial and a consulting firm in the very trendy Marin County. There Campbell is developing a natural aesthetic that excludes things like hothouse floral arrangements and, in Campbell’s words, “gaudy marketers marching up the hill.”
The pioneer adds that “there is a huge generation of people entering accelerated mortality who grew up with the first Earth Day. People are ready for something more meaningful.”
Early indicators are that Campbell’s vision is one poised to come into its own. Carolyn Reese Sloss, who died at age 84 and was cremated, is interred at Fernwood in a biodegradable, papier-mâché urn. Said her son-in-law, Murray Silverman, 62 and a professor of management at San Francisco State, “As an American, I take up too much of an environmental footprint already. To me taking up more of one after I die is pathetic.” Silverman and his wife, Martha Sloss, 52 and a psychotherapist, have their burial easements at Fernwood already reserved.
With larger places like Fernwood up and running, others like organic farmer near San Anselmo, Jerry Draper, are taking notice. He has 11 acres that he’d like to convert to an eco-cemetery instead of selling it off to developers. “It’s about taking responsibility, leaving the campground cleaner than when you found it,” Draper said. “It’s about being a Prius instead of a Hummer.”
Oregonians go they own way
Fewer Oregonians than Californians may drive hybrid cars like the Prius, but that doesn’t mean they’re<
