Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn: Chapters of Poetry & Prose | Page 15

Eternally Green: Sustaining Mount Auburn & the World Around Us
A Sustainable Cemetery
by Candace Currie, Director of Planning & Sustainability
It’s often said that the pe rsonality of an
organization reflects its President. Dave Barnett’s reflections
can certainly be seen in Mount Auburn’s sustainable landscape
management, from the Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
practices in the greenhouses to its recently reconfigured re-
cycling yard. Everything that is removed from the grounds
is transformed into a useful landscape product that goes
back on the grounds. Trees that had to be removed because
of Hurricane Sandy are cut and split into firewood, or
combined with composted leaves and screened interment
fill to create mulch or top soil. About 80% of the leaves
are mulched in situ rejuvenating the structure of the soil,
which in turn, reduces soil compaction, increases the pH,
and improves the habitat for beneficial insects. Due to these
methods, fertilizers are no longer purchased and applied.
Mulch is no longer purchased, but taken directly from the
recycling yard. The grounds at Mount Auburn are sustain-
ably managed.
Barnett, Mount Auburn’s 12th president, holds degrees
in environmental horticulture and a doctorate in ecology.
Two of Mount Auburn’s founders, Jacob Bigelow and
Henry A. S. Dearborn, were also no strangers to the world
of horticulture; and as with Barnett, their imprint may be
seen throughout Mount Auburn. Bigelow, a medical doc-
tor, botanist and author of Florula bostoniensis A Collection
of the Plants of Boston thought crowded church graveyards
and cellars unhealthy. Dearborn, the first president of the
Botanist, Physician, Founder of Mount Auburn Cemetery, Jacob Bigelow’s
monument includes a Latin inscription that makes note of his desire that “his
bones should be placed under this marble at last with peace, faith and hope.”
Massachusetts Horticulture Society and later the founder
of Forest Hill Cemetery, was dedicated to laying out roads,
paths, and transplanting a large selection of young trees
from his own nursery. Ah, there it is: Mount Auburn is both
a cemetery and a botanic garden.
Lots and graves sold today are typically much less than
300 square feet, which was practically a requirement in
1831, but attention to the look and feel of the surrounding
area continues to guide the decisions about new burials –
including ‘green’ or ‘natural’ burials. In the right place, an
eight foot by three foot grave into which a simple casket
without any type of grave liner may be the final resting
place for thousands yet to come.
What if Mount Auburn never runs out of grave space? Is
that possible? If the idea of sustainability is truly embraced
by all of us—not just those governing Mount Auburn, but
also future residents—then yes, Mount Auburn may never
run out of grave space. What if we lived and died according
to this stanza of Reverend John Pierpont’s “Consecration
Hymn,” written for Mount Auburn’s founding:
Decay! Decay! ‘tis stamped on all!
All bloom, in flower and flesh, shall fade;
Ye whispering trees, when we shall fall,
Be our long sleep beneath your shade!
Winter 2013 | 13