‘Like a natural park’: New cemetery near Lincoln is region’s first ‘all-green’ burial site
Your death should leave a lasting legacy, not lasting pollution.
That’s the message at Morgan Oaks Eternal Preserve, which opened late last year on rolling hills north of Lincoln to become the first all-green burial cemetery grounds in the Sacramento region.
“It offers families an eco-friendly alternative to conventional models,” said general manager Juan Martinez, who gave The Sacramento Bee a tour of the property Thursday, which was Earth Day.
Those conventional models can pollute via “carcinogenic embalming fluid that is put in the ground,” according to Martinez.
“Also, there’s a lot of non-biodegradable products being placed in conventional models,” he said.
Academic studies and reports from agencies including the World Health Organization have affirmed for years that traditional burial cemeteries can harm the environment and also present public health risks.
Here’s how green burial works, as explained on the Morgan Oaks website: “The body is not preserved with chemicals and may be encased in a biodegradable coffin (often made of untreated softwood) or cloth shroud, and then placed into a grave without an outer vault or container that would prevent soil contact.”
Families can also have trees planted at the plot near their loved ones.
“The trees that we offer are valley oaks and blue oaks,” Martinez said. “Those trees can live up to 400 to 600 years. ... The property is designed almost like a natural park.”
Martinez said oaks were the best option for longevity and because they don’t need a lot of water — always a concern in drought-ridden California.
Martinez, who served as a combat veteran with the Marine Corps and has more than 15 years of experience in the death care industry, said there has only been one person laid to rest early in the cemetery’s existence, but that several families and married couples have purchased plots.
Morgan Oaks is on 160 acres tucked several miles away from the nearest suburban developments, surrounded only by pasture lands and a handful of vineyards, with idyllic views of the Sutter Buttes and Sierra Nevada ranges. It’s serene and quiet, except for chirping birds.
As the latter half of its name suggests, Morgan Oaks Eternal Preserve also has a theme of permanence, down to ornate benches that are dug two feet into the ground at prime lookout points.
Martinez said he hopes to do away with plaques marking locations of the dead and instead use a GPS-based, augmented-reality smartphone app, which could also display “living memories” of them, such as video or audio clips from their lives, he explained.
Martinez acknowledged this technological aspect likely appeals more to younger people. He said one of the first married couples to purchased a plot was in their 20s.
“I see the change in the culture,” he said. “As Americans, I believe that we’re well aware of our carbon footprint now, and offering families a way to mitigate that final decision is (something) that people are looking to do.”
Other cemeteries, such as Fernwood in Mill Valley, have offered green burial options aside their traditional services, but Morgan Oaks claims to be California’s first all-green cemetery, offering only environmentally conscious options for interment.
Jill Seoane, a 52-year-old Meadow Vista resident who works in the senior care industry, toured Morgan Oaks on Thursday and said she’d “never heard of this or anything even like it.”
Martinez says family plots at Morgan Oaks start at $3,500.
