Honoring our Veterans with National Cemeteries

By Stephen Ercolino, regional agronomist for National Cemetery Association, Memorial Service Network 1

Overlooking West Virginia National Cemetery from a nearby hilltop. More than 14,500 acres of land from Hawaii to Maine and from Alaska to Puerto Rico are devoted to the memorialization of those who served this nation. These cemeteries are considered to be National Shrines and as such NCA strives to maintain all of them at the highest level of care for veterans and their loved ones. Photo Courtsey of Victor Bartlett.

The Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration is responsible for performing burials of our nation?EUR??,,????'???s veterans and families and the landscape maintenance of 123 national cemeteries.

Memorial Service Network 1 is comprised of 32 of these cemeteries which are located from Togus, Maine to Hampton, Va. The cemeteries are quite varied in size, landscape and burial rate and all are unique in their own special way.

 

Active burial section at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Penn. Finished burial sections at this cemetery are established with the use of sod. Photo Courtsey of Stephen Ercolino.

MSN 1 cemeteries contain over 1,700 acres of total turf with burial options including full casket, in ground and columbaria cremains. Sites that are closed are considered to be satellite cemeteries and are not staffed on a daily basis, but are overseen by a larger currently operational cemetery. Open cemeteries have staffs that range in size from three to 100 full time employees with hours of operation being from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and are open for visitation by the public every day of the year.

The purchase of large equipment such as mowers, backhoes or dump trucks is done through one central equipment budget that can vary from year to year. Cemeteries are required to submit their equipment needs in advance to an equipment committee with accurate pricing information which is then put forth for consideration.

Mower/trimmer in use at Calverton National Cemetery saves about 80 man hours per week from the arduous task of using string trimmers. Developed by the cemetery staff, this allows the cemetery to use less employees in the time consuming job of trimming headstones. Photo Courtsey of Steve Callagy.

Mowing and trimming of cemetery turf is completed on a weekly cycle, with no more than one third of the total leaf surface being removed in a single mowing. Being that all cemeteries within MSN 1 contain cool season turf grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye or tall fescue, mowing heights are set at 3.0 inches and may be raised to 3.5 inches during the warmer, drier summer months when turf growth may slow down appreciably.

Turf fertilizer is applied in the amount of 3 to 3.5 lbs. of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per year with the first application being in late May or early June, the second in early to mid-September and the third in mid-November after the final mowing of the season. A fertilizer with a 24-6-12 NPK ratio with 50 percent nitrogen from slow release sulfur coated urea is normally used on cemetery turf unless soil test results would recommend otherwise.

Backfilling and tamping a grave at Long Island National Cemetery. Graves must be properly filled and tamped to insure that they do not settle and are uniform with adjoining graves. Photo Courtsey of Larry Williams.

To control broadleaf weeds such as dandelion, clover or plantain and crabgrass in cemetery turf, two broadleaf weed applications per year are performed in April and October along with two pre-emergent crabgrass control applications that are done roughly six to eight weeks apart for full seasonal control.

MSN 1 has begun a tree maintenance and inventory program for several of it?EUR??,,????'???s cemeteries that involves cataloging every tree on site with the use of a GPS system, identifying any associated problems with each tree and developing a long term maintenance plan that projects tree care costs for the next five years. All of this information is accessible to cemetery and MSN 1 employees on a web based server at any time. Although some tree pruning is completed by cemetery staff, large scale pruning or tree removal is generally done with the use of an ISA certified arborist.

Cleaning headstones at Long Island National Cemetery. Headstones are cleaned using a mixture of water and bleach on a regular basis to remove any stains or discoloration. Photo Courtsey of Larry Williams.

Any newly planted trees have mulch rings established around the base of the trees to help keep mowing/trimming equipment away from the base of the tree which greatly reduces the chance of mower/ trimmer damage and increases long term tree viability. Cemetery planting beds are edged in the spring of each year and mulched with a 2-3 inch layer of shredded hardwood mulch.

MSN 1 cemeteries use a large variety of landscape and grounds maintenance equipment to perform and complete everyday cemetery operations. Mowers range from the Toro Groundsmaster 328D with a 72-inch recycler mowing deck used in burial sections to the larger Toro 580D which is used for large open areas of the cemetery or for mowing in flat marker sections. One of the unique pieces of equipment that was developed at Calverton National Cemetery is the combination mower / trimmer.

The purchase of large equipment such as mowers, backhoes or dump trucks is done through one central equipment budget that can vary from year to year.

The mowing deck has a string trimmer attached to it that allows the operator to mow between headstone rows and trim around the base of the headstone, all at the same time. This greatly decreases the time employees are needed to devote to trimming with hand held string trimmers. Other turf maintenance equipment includes tractor mounted spreaders for fertilization, turf sweepers, aerators, top dressers and soil compactors.

For work in digging, preparing and finishing burial sections, cemetery staffs may use a Caterpillar 420D four wheel drive backhoe, the Caterpillar M318C wheeled excavator, or the Caterpillar 305CR mini excavator along with large 6-8 yard dump trucks. For finishing and grading burial sections before the application of seed or sod, cemeteries may use equipment such as the New Holland TC35D 4×4 tractor with a tiller or box scraper.

Hydroseeding graves at Calverton National Cemetery. A list of interments that are completed in the winter months is kept by the staff and as spring arrives all winter re-openers (second internments) are hydroseeded to establish turf on the grave. Photo Courtsey of Steve Callagy.

Utility vehicles that are used to complete many different cemetery jobs include the Toro Workman, Bobcat Toolcat 5600 or the John Deere Pro Gator 2030 along with the associated attachments such as augers, sweepers, snow plows and sprayers. Other equipment that is used for the completion of interments includes soil tampers, jack hammers, water pumps and portable generators.

Although there are a few cemeteries that have in ground irrigation systems, the majority of them do not. Those that do have them have experienced difficulty with keeping them running properly and efficiently. Though there are some instances during dry summer months when turf will slow in growth or go dormant and become brown, the average yearly rainfall for the mid Atlantic-Northeast region is usually more than sufficient to provide us with green, healthy turf for the majority of the growing season.