From Golf Course to Green Burial Cemetery/Nature Preserve

Kenyon College’s land trust, the Philander Chase Corporation, is turning the defunct Tomahawk Golf Course on Quarry Chapel Road, in Gambier, into a public “Kokosing Nature Preserve” with a small golf course and a “green burial” cemetery.

I love the idea because I’ve long felt that cemeteries are public nature preserves and parks.  That really hit me when I began making cremation plans at a Honolulu public cemetery as my sister, Cheryl, was dying from colon cancer.

Despite the sight of the crematorium, on each of my trips to the cemetery, before and after her death, I was unexpectedly uplifted by the wild birds in the park, including a flock of green parrots.   I bought a “Birds of Hawaii” guidebook that listed the cemetery as a primary birdwatching spot on Oahu—and the best place to see these green parrots.

I’ve also enjoyed birds at the Howard cemetery at Apple Valley.

So I enjoyed the article I read today on the trust’s purchase of the 51-acre Tomahawk Golf Course property, in the Summer 2014 issue of Kenyon’s alumni bulletin, online at "http://www1.kenyon.edu/newsdigest/bulletin/20140805kcab/".  The article states that this is one of only 3 nature conservancy cemeteries in Ohio and 42 exclusive “green burial” cemeteries in the country.  It is also the first nationally at a college or university.

The article explains that, “Green burial resumes practices of old, removing the environmental barriers of conventional burial practices and allowing the dead to ‘return to dust’…Formaldehyde, a carcinogen, is forbidden in green burial, as are concrete burial vaults and lids, which are not biodegradable.  In addition, caskets must be made of plant-based materials.”

And, the article adds that the Kokosing Nature Preserve “will be designed to reflect a naturalistic appearance with native plants…In addition, it will be protected in perpetuity, exclusively for conservation, meaning the land may never be developed.”

Landscape architect and Philander Chase Corporation trustee Stephen Christy, who graduated from Kenyon in 1971, is replacing evergreens with oaks and hickories and planting orchard grass and other pasture grasses, interspersed with black-eyed susans and asters.

A Peaceful Meadow for All

The article states that the cemetery will be ready in 2015 and that “Graves can be designated with flat, natural stone markers, though not the heavily polished headstones used in most cemeteries.  The final result will be a peaceful, natural setting ideal for walks and quiet contemplation, more closely resembling a meadow than most of today’s headstone-rowed cemeteries…Christy is still mapping the plots of the Kokosing Nature Preserve, but the property is expected to have a total of 2,000 to 4,000 spaces, making it a significant revenue source for the land trust in the coming years.”

And the article says that Snyder Funeral Homes in Mount Vernon now offers full green burial services.
According to the article, the Philander Chase Corporation has preserved more than 5,000 acres of land near the College.

As an example of other land preservation efforts by the college, the Brown Family Environmental Center has a 480-acre preserve that helps to keep the waters of the Kokosing River pristine.  And the Owl Creek Conservancy, a sister trust to the Philander Chase Corporation, has preserved nearly 2,422 acres.