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Date: 9/21/2021
WESTHAMPTON – A representative from the Kestrel Land Trust and two representatives from Green Burial Massachusetts met with Westhampton’s biggest municipal boards to conduct a preliminary presentation about the possibility of adding a private cemetery in Westhampton.
The representatives met with the Westhampton Selectboard, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and the Conservation Commission to introduce the topic and answer any questions about the possibility of adding something like this.
According to Candace Currie, the clerk and director for Green Burial, a recent goal of the organization is to establish a conservation cemetery. To do this in Massachusetts, one must become a private nonprofit cemetery entity. “We did create such an entity, so now we are looking for land so we can in fact own and operate a cemetery,” said Currie, during the Selectboard presentation.
A conservation cemetery is different from a typical cemetery in that it looks to conserve space and use flat headstones, rather than upright headstones.
“What makes it typically unique is working with somebody like Kestrel because it has conservation values,” said Currie. “Those values, and the healing sanctuary of this open space or wooded space is what makes a conservation cemetery unique. It’s a partnership with a land trust.”
A conservation cemetery also typically contains less density than a normal city or town cemetery. According to Currie, Green Burial is working with standards presented by their own council. In a conservation cemetery like the one they are looking to implement, the standards include a burial density of 400 burials per acre, compared to 1,000 burials per acre in a normal cemetery.
Much like in other conserved property, benches and trails would be part of the conservation cemetery. The benches could either be memorial benches or benches just for viewing. Rather than displacing soil with a casket and moving that soil elsewhere, a burial mound is typically used in these cemeteries when burying someone, and the displaced soil would be placed on top of the casket or body that is buried. Family members would be able to participate in the actual burial, as well.
“Eventually, over 12 to 18 months, that [soil] would all collapse, and it would become level again,” said Currie. Shrouded bodies would be allowed into the ground, as well as on-site markers. “It’s a great place for community members to gather together to commemorate somebody in the community who may have died,” said Curran. “It’s a healing sanctuary and a conserved sanctuary.”
According to Kristin DeBoer, the executive director of Kestrel, Green Burial and Kestrel are looking at a parcel in the Westhampton and Northampton border for this conservation cemetery. The area they are looking at is around 220 acres and is a part of an area that Kestrel has been conserving over the years in partnership with Hilltown Land Trust, the town of Westhampton, Northampton and the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game. The cemetery portion would be a small portion of the 220-acre land that is privately-owned and currently for sale.
Kestrel has been regularly looking through the pioneer valley to find the perfect soil for a project like this, according to DeBoer. Not all soil types are suitable for a cemetery like this due to widespread glaciation in the northeast.
Because it is a confidential location, Kestrel did not want to provide any specific names or locations yet. “The larger conservation project that we’re hoping to achieve is forest conservation in partnership with the state and the city of Northampton,” said DeBoer.
Currently, according to DeBoer, there are no conservation cemeteries in the state, although the Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst does allow for some natural burials as a hybrid cemetery. Currie added that, about 10 years ago, Chesterfield was the only cemetery in Massachusetts that allowed for green burial. At this moment in time, there around two dozen cemeteries in the state that allow these types of burials.
Kestrel Land Trust is a nonprofit land conservation organization that works in partnership with municipalities, other land trusts, and the state to conserve land in different ways. They specifically work with municipalities and the state to obtain public grants to acquire land for conservation purposes. Kestrel has worked with Westhampton on other projects in the past, including a project involving the Collins property.
Green Burial, meanwhile, is a statewide volunteer nonprofit organization with the goals of starting the first green cemetery in Massachusetts, and to educate the public about green burials.
Kestrel and Green Burial will plan to present more detailed steps for this project to the Westhampton Selectboard in the near future.