NEWFIELD -- The first environmentally-friendly cemetery in New York state may be coming to Newfield.

The Green Springs Natural Cemetery Association -- a four-member group made up of Ithaca and Corning residents -- wants to create a cemetery on Irish Hill Road where people are buried without embalming fluids, concrete vaults or elaborate coffins. Bodies would be placed in simple pine boxes in plots no smaller than 10 feet by 15 feet, said Mary Woodsen, the association's president. Cremated bodies could also be spread over the land. The starting cost of about $400 would match that of other cemeteries. But a $400 plot of land in the East Lawn Cemetery is about 3-feet 8-inch wide and 12 feet long, according to Cheryl Morse, the cemetery's superintendent.

The low density burial site would have graves marked by simple stones or native trees and shrubs. In 100 years, the place might look like a forest with some meadow areas, Woodsen said.

"We don't want rows of markers one after the next," she said. "We just want it to be simpler and kind of quiet and peaceful."

The grounds would have some paths wide enough for vehicles and the area would be handicap accessible. Trails mowed in the grass would also wind throughout the property, through the grave site and to other areas where no one would be buried, she added.

"It's a basic dust-to-dust, ashes-to-ashes approach," Woodsen said. "We feel this is the traditional approach to burial."

The state's Cemetery Board gave preliminary approval on April 15 for the association to form, according to Peter Constantakes, spokesman for the State Department.

The group is preparing to present their proposal next month to the Newfield Town Board.

A Corning-based committee tried the same idea two years ago but were turned down. They wanted property on Burdge Hill Road and neighbors weren't happy about it.

"They didn't want this type of cemetery around them," Deputy Supervisor Mary Beth Holub said. "Some of them were afraid of ground water contamination issues."

But their presentation sparked interest in Herb Engman, a former Newfield resident who still owns property there.

"I have this land and this cottage and was wondering what to do with it," he said. "This would be an area where...wildlife can continue to use the property after the people are buried there."

His 98 acres are adjacent to Cornell University's Arnot Forest and a private home, and across the street from vacant farm land. The meadow area is home to a variety of birds like northern harriers, bluebirds and bobolinks.

"From an environmental perspective, it's a very gentle use of the land," said Engman, an Ithaca Town Board member and former president of the Finger Lakes Land Trust.

The land could be resold without worry of environmental clean up because formaldehyde and other obtrusive chemicals would not be used in the burial process, Constantakes said.

Board members have a few issues to consider, Holub said. The property -- valued at $114,400, according to Tompkins County Assessment Office records -- would come off the tax rolls. Also, if the organization becomes defunct, the town would be responsible for the cemetery.

The town, however, would not be taking care of upkeep for the cemetery, Constantakes said of state law.

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