Experts using radar have confirmed there are as many as 30 bodies buried at the new forest centre in Prince Albert.

Landscapers at the Saskatchewan Forest Centre first dug up human remains last fall.

Construction on the $12.7 million building began in 2003. Staff had officially moved in by the beginning of 2005.

However, the centre at 1061 Central Ave. near Prince Albert's City Hall is on land where churches dating back to the 1860s once stood.

Recent radar testing leaves little doubt the site is an abandoned church cemetery. The delicate task of removing the bodies for further study begins next week.

Scientists should be able to determine the sex and the age of the bodies, but because church records were destroyed by fire, identifying them will be a problem.

When the examination is complete, they will find a final resting place in Prince Albert, said Norman Hill, a spokesman for a local Presbyterian church.

"There will be a proper burial ceremony at the cemetery in South Hill, at the Presbyterian cemetery portion of that cemetery," he said.

That funeral will likely happen in late summer.