That makes sense to me. I'm sure the stones in good shape can take
the burn. It's the older stones that are starting to crumble that
will suffer more and more each year.
la
----- Original Message -----
From: <helen(a)stonehugger.com>
To: <inpcrp(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 8:31 PM
Subject: [INPCRP] burning in cemeteries
I know this is an old topic; and a hot one at that (no pun intended). I
have recently had the opportunity to do the first phase of a restoration of
a cemetery that is also a state preserve for prairie grasses. This has
been a unique opportunity for me in that I have had to work closely with
the DNR in that state in regards to the protection of the plant life in the
cemetery while trying to restore the headstones that are there. This is an
extremely old cemetery, dating to the early 1800s. The majority of the
stones are sandstone tablets. I was able to observe up close the damage
that burning had done to this cemetery. Almost all of the previous repairs
to the tablets have failed over time. Whether this is due to burning or to
improper repairs is unsure. The DNR does not burn every year, so on the
other years they have used bush hogs to cut the prairie grasses. The grass
is so tall the stones are not visible, so great damage is done to the
stones by hitting them with the mowing equipment. This cemetery is
scheduled for another burn in Feb-March of 2009. It will be interesting to
see the effect the burning has had on my epoxy repairs done this time. One
observation I made though was that there was not a large amount of algae
visible on the stones, but the sandstone markers did not fare as well as
the marble markers did. The sandstone tablets were splitting at the ground
upward with the fronts of the tablets cleaving off. The stones have a
visible bow to them from the ground up, forcing the front of the tablets to
be damaged. I did not notice this on the marble stones. After the burn in
the spring I will let you know what the results are.
Helen Wildermuth
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