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know where everybody is, but as you look at the surface of the land, you might not recognize it.� A long-handled yellow sensor, something like a truncated metal detector or weed-whacker, reads the signal from the purple, grapefruit-sized marker, which is placed 18 inches below the surface (the bodies themselves are, on average, another four feet down). But technology is not what draws people to Fernwood, Curry says. Mostly it’s environmentalism, a desire to use fewer chemicals and other resources, to generate less pollution. And that makes natural burial an appealing alternative to cremation, which remains the dominant practice in this area.
The dead are buried among flowers and fauna with just a frequency ID tag to find them.
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“Cremation uses a significant amount of natural gas,� Curry elaborates. “So from an environmental standpoint, that’s the biggest downside. You’re also putting some pollutants back into the atmosphere. Although we have state-of-the-art equipment that does as much filtering as possible, there’s still some mercury from people who have the old amalgam fillings that goes back into the atmosphere.� Cost may also be a consideration. While there isn’t much difference in the price of the plot itself, Curry notes that with a natural burial, “you’re not buying a vault, you’re not buying an expensive casket, you’re not paying to have a vault set and some of those other fees.� The net difference can be “about a 30 to 40 percent savings.� For hospice patients, adds Cynthia Beal, there is “an opportunity to think about their deaths in advance. You can plan it so you’re not at the mercy of whatever options are shown to you in a very short time.� Even so, green burials are still rather rare. “I can’t recall that anyone has ever asked for one,� reflects Laura Nesius, general manager of Santa Rosa Memorial Park. “If somebody were to ask us, we’d have no problem doing it,� she adds, probably at its new 40-acre Shiloh Annex, south of Windsor. It has “more of a woodsy setting,� Nesius says. But it’s hard to match Fernwood’s undulating elevations, which adjoin the Golden Gate national Recreation Area. “We are a certified wildlife habitat,� Curry points out, with deer, a resident bobcat, occasional coyote sightings and abundant birds, rodents, snakes and small mammals sharing the cemetery site. “If you put flowers on a grave here, they may be there a week later or they may be eaten by the next morning,� she laughs, “depending on whether the deer come through that night.� To contact Forever Fernwood, call 415.383.7100.
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06.17.09-06.23.09
THE BOHEMIAN