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Formaldehyde is readily dissolvable in water, but as said, unless the water table is high it is unlikely to rise into the rooting zone. Over time it would become very diluted if there were any water movement through the casket/body.
In any case, although the risk is low, the optics of the situation are probably more of an issue. Most wouldn't have an issue with it, but you might have a few who would be very upset by it. Best to avoid if possible in my opinion.
My in-laws own 2 funeral homes and I have buried quite a few people. The regulations for Burial is the body must have a vault and some sort of casket. Now 6 feet is not extract. Sometimes it’s 5 feet sometimes is 7 feet depending on the grave digger. Now say you put the vault at 5 feet. The vault is 3 feet high. So that leaves the top of the vault 2 feet underground. Not a vaults are water sealed. And they do fill up with water I know from experience.
The regulations on caskets/vaults etc. are quite variable from place to place and have changed considerably over time. Hard to say exactly what might have been done fifty or even twenty years ago. Walk through an old cemetery and see how many depressions there are over (apparent) graves. No vaults there. On a hillside, the uphill side might be 6 ft (or 5 ft) down, but the downhill end might be only 1-2 ft down.
First granny kicks the bucket then she’s in a bucket. No thanks on that syrup.
Spud
Very true. The older the grave the shallower the grave for the most part. Now days you can be put in a maple tree root bulb and planted. Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins
I used to work mowing grass in a large cemetery in the summers. Many, many large sugar maples with a great network of roads weaving all through it...you could drive right up to the tree and gather sap all day long without even getting mud on your boots. What a great place it would be to tap trees and gather sap. That said, I can't imagine that it would be worth it for the city that owns the cemetery to give approval for it. Like others have said, many wouldn't mind and some might even think it was a neat thing to do, but some may not think it's appropriate.Quote:
Originally Posted by buckeye gold
We used to tap a cemetery up until a few years ago. We mowed the grass there in the summer and the owners allowed us to tap the trees in the spring. We would set up a mainline, droplines each spring and take it all down after the season. We could get the whole thing up and running in a few hours. We have since stopped because we have added tons of new taps at our sugarhouse. That being said, those maples would produce a ton of sap! Our biggest issue there was transporting the sap which wasnt to bad, but we had a long run of mainline to get the sap out to the road and on a warm day the sap would heat up a lot in the line and unless you pumped daily the sap would spoil.
Most of our cemeteries around here are full of old tappers....people who were farmers and tapped trees in the spring when the farming was slower. They would be glad to know your teaching the kids about taping. I would not hesitate to ask and if it is for the kids then I am sure it would be a good chance to add on a few more lesson plans...the need to seek permission to use other's land and who is who in the cemetery.
Our local High School has an excellent program in their Outdoor Science class. They have a beautiful little sugarhouse. One student home built an RO. They put a lot of the science into the process.
It won't hurt to ask.
Mike
I dunno if I would do it- no need to invite the spirits of the dead in your body through sap- better to get spirits in your body through whiskey!
I have had my eye on about 20 huge maple trees that surround a very old private cemetery for a couple of years now. The trees are on the outside of the granite wall that encloses the whole cemetery, But i still think it is a little iffy and perhaps wrong to try and tap them. I would not try and tap any trees inside but the ones on the outside sure tempt me to reach out and ask the property owner.