Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve in Newfield installs wind phone

When someone grieves for a loved one, they try to find ways to get closure or just to chat.

The Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve in Newfield, a 130-acre preserve and natural burial ground that started in 2006, provides options to guide people through the grieving process.

Aside from a traditional burial site, the non-profit organization offers the remembrance grove — a place of solace for parents suffering the loss of a child.

The cemetery also has a 0.6-mile hiking trail known as the Herb Engman loop, named after the former town of Ithaca supervisor who served as president of the Greensprings board.

Engman also donated 100 acres of land to the Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve a few years ago.

Inside the loop, the organization has installed a wind phone, an unconnected telephone that gives people a chance to talk to loved ones beyond their resting place.

“A lot of times when someone passes, you don’t get to say everything you wanted to say,” said Michelle Menter, the executive director of the preserve. “Maybe you had the opportunity to say everything you wanted to say, but it’s been months or a year or longer and you want to tell them how you’re doing now. This is an invitation to commune with yourself, your memories and reconnect with that loved one that isn’t here anymore but still in your heart.”

The wind phone became available on October 13. Noted in a release from Menter: “Talk of the past, talk of the future, the wind phone will carry your message.”

The wind phone originated as an unconnected telephone booth in Japan. In 2010, Itaru Sasaki created the wind phone to help him cope with the loss of a family member.

Sasaki opened it to the public in 2011 after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami killed more than 15,000 people. It gave grieving family members an opportunity to connect with their loved ones.

Since then, the original wind phone has received more than 30,000 visitors.

“He felt it was a way for him to reach out and feel his (family member’s) presence with him,” Menter said.

Now, the United States has about 200 wind phones at various locations, Menter said.

The wind phone at Greensprings was sculpted by local artist Trenton Duerksen, who is also a draftsman, illustrator and the senior exhibition maintenance manager at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Menter connected with Duerksen after a lengthy search to find a woodworker who was interested in doing the project.

“Trenton was so excited to do it,” Menter said.

Duerksen hand carved the wind phone from honey locust. The phone is honey-colored with shades of black and a yellow tint, Menter said, noting it took a few months to be created and installed.

The wind phone now hangs on a maple tree inside the Herb Engman loop, with a stone bench beside the tree.

“You come along through a meadow, and you’ve got this gentle uphill view to the northeast,” Menter said. “When you’re coming up, you come upon this orange and red maple tree with a stone bench on it. You see the telephone hanging up on the tree.”

Menter, who said grief is almost like a taboo emotion, noted that people don’t have a lot of public spaces to express their emotions.

The wind phone, along with the rest of the nature preserve, is changing that perception of a designated grieving area, Menter said.

“A cemetery is a natural place for sadness. People come deeply grieving someone they’ve lost,” Menter said. “I think people come to nature when they’re sad. Greensprings has both going for it — it’s a cemetery but you can also stroll anywhere. You have less of a sense that you’re in a cemetery than you have a sense that you are walking in a nature preserve. You feel like you’re in this well-tended but sort of wild meadowland habitat. We want to continue to grow into this space that can offer comfort for people who are grieving.”

For more information about the wind phone or the organization as a whole, contact Menter at michellem@naturalburial.org.

Newfield Notes appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.

In brief:

Newfield town board to hold hearing on proposed budget

The Town of Newfield Board is holding a public hearing on its proposed 2025 budget Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. at the town hall on Main Street.

The town is proposing a budget of $4,079,834, a 9% increase ($341,299) from the enacted 2024 budget ($3,738,535).

The proposed tax levy is $2,811,359  —  a slight  increase from 2024 ($2,794,442). New York State instituted a tax cap of 2.86% for the town. It exceeded by about 0.14%, or $3,827.

A copy of the town’s proposed 2025 budget can be found at newfieldny.org. For more information or questions, call the town hall at 607-564-9981.