To contact Baldwin Hill Conservation Cemetery, go to Cemetery Contact Information
The Baldwin Hill Story
The Baldwin Hill Board of Directions and Kennebec Land Trust Staff, Theresa Kercher and Marie Ring. (l to r Kim Vandemeulen, Theresa Kercher, Marty Keniston, Deb Sewall, Paul Kuehnert, Susan Caldwell, Dave Fuller and Marie Ring) Photograph: KLT
The Baldwin Hill Conservation Cemetery seeks to provide ecologically sound burial for people of all faiths and to serve as a model of green burial practices in Maine and beyond.
After two Kennebec Land Trust summer interns, Josh Caldwell and Jack Daley, spent their summers researching green burial and conservation cemeteries, respectively, their brochures were published in KLT’s biannual newsletter. In spring 2019, with generous support from KLT members, Paul Kuehnert and Judith Graber and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, KLT purchased 90 acres for the future Baldwin Hill Conservation Area and Baldwin Conservation Cemetery. Baldwin Hill Conservation Burial Ground was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in February 2020 and began operations in May 2021.
As we developed this initiative, we always came back to one key finding: conservation burial is traditional burial, a practice that has been followed for thousands of years. The use of chemical embalming fluids and energy-intensive cement vaults is relatively new, and our society is still coming to terms with the environmental impacts of these modern burial practices. KLT is proud that we will be providing an ecologically sound model for burial in a meaningful way at the end of life. We picture Baldwin Hill as a place where people will celebrate life and the beauty of the natural world.
After two Kennebec Land Trust summer interns, Josh Caldwell and Jack Daley, spent their summers researching green burial and conservation cemeteries, respectively, their brochures were published in KLT’s biannual newsletter. In spring 2019, with generous support from KLT members, Paul Kuehnert and Judith Graber and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, KLT purchased 90 acres for the future Baldwin Hill Conservation Area and Baldwin Conservation Cemetery. Baldwin Hill Conservation Burial Ground was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in February 2020 and began operations in May 2021.
As we developed this initiative, we always came back to one key finding: conservation burial is traditional burial, a practice that has been followed for thousands of years. The use of chemical embalming fluids and energy-intensive cement vaults is relatively new, and our society is still coming to terms with the environmental impacts of these modern burial practices. KLT is proud that we will be providing an ecologically sound model for burial in a meaningful way at the end of life. We picture Baldwin Hill as a place where people will celebrate life and the beauty of the natural world.
The First Burial Site at the Baldwin Hill Cemetery
Marc stopped by our office, on his way to visit his wife’s grave on her birthday. When asked why he chose Baldwin Hill he replied that our bodies come from the Earth, so it only makes sense that they are returned there. He knows his wife would be very happy where she is, and he will be happy there, too, someday.
Photo by Tyler Kenis
The burial practices employed at Baldwin Hill Cemetery rely on the resiliency of the land and the processes of life and death that contribute to that resilience.
—Baldwin Hill
