The Salt Spring Island Natural Cemetery is a conservation green burial cemetery on the west coast of BC. Opening in 2020, it has received a welcome reception from the living who are making environmentally-conscious end-of-life choices, and from families of deceased who choose to honour their loved ones in nature. The burial ground is 14 acres of hillside Coastal Douglas Fir forest adjacent to the owners’ thriving family farm. Catherine Valentine and Gavin Johnston have given their hearts, minds, and souls to this land and are so pleased to share it in this way with the community. “This is as much about a natural memorial place as it is about rebuilding our connection with death and dying” says Catherine. There is a beautiful post and beam gathering place for funeral services and celebrations. Each burial lends to protection and restoration of old growth forest and provides a home to chickadees, woodpeckers, owls and so many more diverse plants and animals.

Bill Gupton brought his dream of creating a natural burial sanctuary for Cincinnati to fruition in 2020, after more than a decade of hard work that began with an inspiration at the grave of the great 19th century naturalist Henry David Thoreau. Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary offers 40 acres of natural beauty, with trails for hiking, a pond and a home for native species.  In spring the Ohio buckeye brings the earliest colour, giving way to the native wildflowers scattered across the forest floor. In summer, the meadow grass sways with the breeze, and milkweed attracts the monarch butterflies. In fall, the annual hay is done, while the dogwood bursts with autumnal colours. Then, a blanket of snow.

Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery was founded by a group of citizens whose vision was to combine land conservation with natural burial. The cemetery’s 93 acres set aside within a conservation land trust’s 600 acres. PCCC is open 365 days a year from dawn to dusk for visitation and passive recreation including hiking, biking, horseback riding, and more. In the hardwood forest you’ll find live oaks, pignut hickories, southern magnolias, winged elms, red oaks, and sweetgums, pileated woodpeckers, deer, skinks, red-shouldered hawks, and even bobcats! The restored areas of the meadow include lopsided Indiangrass, yellow Indiangrass, muhly grass, wiregrass, black-eyed susans, spiderwort, and more. A restoration project is underway to introduce native milkweed for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

For over 30 years, Suzanne Willow and Lanita Witt have been walking the walk of land conservation, restoration, and regeneration. To carry their commitment forward in perpetuity, they established The Forest “as an extension of stewardship beyond their lifetimes.” Nestled within the epic 445-acre Willow-Witt Ranch, The Forest is Oregon’s first completely green burial ground; its burial sites overlook meadows and seasonal wetlands, with trails winding through the cemetery. Described by one visitor as mystical and sacred, The Forest welcomes people of all faiths, identities, and walks of life to “come together in shared honoring of the experiences we hold together, and shared reverence for the space that holds us.” Suzanne and Lanita plan to be buried in The Forest and recognize that many other people are committed to preserving the natural integrity of the land they love and wish to use their own burials to support their lifelong ecological values. (That’s how we feel!)

Cemetery director Jodie Buller is here to do good. At the helm of Sacred Earth Foundation’s conservation cemetery, she’s in good company. The epic story of SEF isn’t easily summarized; it is as wild as the 1,263 acres it protects in perpetuity. SEF’s founder and the cemetery’s inaugural inhabitant, Ray Mitchell, devoted 30 years of his life to protecting this quiet corner of Washington wilderness. Ray long held the dream of creating a natural burial ground here to further serve the community and preserve the land. Ray died unexpectedly in 2007, but his dream was honoured by the creation of White Eagle Memorial Preserve: 20 serene acres of forest and meadow set out toward a canyon’s edge. The sentiment “beauty will save the world” is shared among SEF’s founders and echoes through Jodie’s approach to this meaningful work of natural burial.

“The End is a New Beginning”

Carolina Memorial Sanctuary provides a peaceful environment for the natural burial of humans, our pet companions, or cremated remains. It is a public park every day from sunrise to sunset, offering a place to hike in nature, alone or with friends and dog. You may wander by bluebird houses or hear the buzz of bees enjoying the pollinator habitat. There’s a conservation easement on the land and volunteers help take care of this beautiful 11 acres conservation burial ground.

The Natural Path Sanctuary is the only green burial ground in the world helping support a farm incubator and peace and justice initiatives.  It is set amidst 25 acres of woods and meadows.  The idea for an ecologically sustainable natural cemetery where families can help prepare the site and conduct their own graveside services originated with a decision by Linda Farley’s family to bury Linda in the same way she had lived her life: with a strong commitment to nourish and heal.  Linda Farley and her husband were both family physicians who chose to practice medicine in under-serviced and marginalized communities and they trained other physicians and physician assistants to do the same. They also played prominent roles in many social action causes.  Linda had never wanted a fancy funeral or tombstone, and the Farleys established a “Savor a Life and Feed a Tree Burial Ground” in Linda’s memory.  “There is rarely a burial where people don’t come up to me and say I just never imagined how meaningful this would be,” says Shedd Farley, Linda’s son and the current burial ground manager.

“This should be sad but this is the place where we come when we’re sad but we leave happy”. 

Those words were spoken by a family visiting their loved one at Windmill Natural Green Burial in Northamptonshire UK. Jo Painter is passionate about nature, and wanted to create a natural burial ground with her husband Neil. Surrounded by farmland, Windmills is a gathering place for families who return often with chairs, pets, and picnic in hand. Families can plant a memorial tree from among five types of native trees and some request that the tree is planted before they die, so they can see their contribution to the woodland’s renewal.

Motivated to bring a mindful after-death option to their community, a group of kindred spirits brought Larkspur Conservation to life. At Tennessee’s first natural burial preserve, which spans 112 acres of mesophytic forest, cedar glade and meadow, every burial is an act of healing. Enveloped by nature, visitors are able to connect with death and are welcome to hike, study, and birdwatch in the area. At Larkspur, founding member and death-care visionary John Christian Phifer says, “my focus is people, based on the planet.”

Colorado Burial Preserve sits on 65 acres of former rangeland, and is blessed with mountainous pinyon/juniper and short grass prairie plants.  Too dry for agriculture and a stone’s throw from the highest security level prison in the country, the area was considered ‘junk land’. But, Emily Miller, a licensed funeral director and manager of a funeral home group, was immediately struck by its diversity and beauty. The site opened in 2021.

Emily tells the story of a woman whose mother had had a difficult life, and struggled with substance abuse. “In situations like this, natural burial can provide ‘shovel therapy’; conveying your loved one with the strength of your body to the burial site, and digging their grave with your own two hands – it creates a whole new attitude towards death and a connection between death and nature and our own participation in the process.”  As the daughter herself writes, There is something extraordinarily powerful about actually burying someone – being an active agent in returning them to the dust. This is death faced head on, and that felt very right to me.”

South Downs Natural Burial Site is a non-profit organization and is part of Earthworks Charity, based at the Sustainability Centre within a national park. The native woodland burial site is created by planting memorial trees, and is ecologically managed to promote rich biodiversity for wildlife including owls, badgers, raptors and stoats. There are no markings and cremated remains are not accepted. On the day of a burial, the staff offer lifts to the burial plot and the coffin is carried using a hand-drawn bier or horse-drawn cart. Each grave is dug by hand to minimize the impact on the flora and fauna and to respect the tranquility of the site. Families are also invited to plant native wildflowers on their loved-one’s plot.

When dream team Donal Key and Linda Canyon saw the need for a gentle, affordable, and environmentally sound end to life in their community, they set out to open La Puerta. With extensive experience in healthcare and end-of-life advocacy, Donal and Linda now oversee 41 acres of natural burial ground at the base of a glorious mountain range that teems with life. We highly recommend checking out La Puerta’s blog for Donal’s poetic musings on life and death in what he calls “one of the most peaceful places on Earth.”

Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve covers 130 acres of rolling meadows, spotted with evergreen groves, fringed by 10 acres of woods, and surrounded by 8,000 acres of protected forests. Stewardship is at the heart of everything they do, including adopting practices that help maintain healthy open meadows where meadowlarks, northern harriers, bobolinks, and other birds can thrive. Greensprings offers a sustainable, natural alternative to conventional burials, without embalming fluids, high-cost coffins, concrete vaults and fancy gravestones. At Greensprings, burial is simple. People make their return to the Earth in a way that celebrates how they lived their lives.

Nancy Chubb and Pete McQuillin shared a desire for ecologically sound burials which inspired them to create Penn Forest.  ‘We had no idea how to do this’, explained Nancy. “We invited people for coffee, we set up a website and we realized there was interest. It just snowballed, and we were eventually able to buy 35 acres of woods and meadows.  Among the features of this beautiful park are goats, which initially were meant to help with weed control and now feature in the goat yoga classes!  Stephanie’s husband Tom is buried at Penn Forest.” We love going to Penn Forest to place flowers on Tom’s grave, interact with the farm animals, hike the trails and have a picnic.” Life continues for Stephanie and she takes solace in the life she sees growing around Tom.

In 2021, Pete was laid to rest in the cemetery he’d created.

Robin Weber is a 3rd generation Prudence Islander who had a dream of creating a natural burial ground for the local residents.  “Even as a kid,” she said, “I thought it odd that people couldn’t be buried on the Island.”  Five lots that formed a block all came up for sale so Robin used her savings and went ahead and bought them.  In fact, she only did an assessment of the land’s suitability as a cemetery after she had made the purchase!  So Prudence Memorial Park was really founded on faith and optimism.  Robin now works with a Doula who had worked in palliative care for 20 years and had never heard of green burial. As Robin says, “There is an interest but people just don’t know enough! Overwhelmingly people think it’s the obvious choice once they hear of it.”

Peter McHugh purchased a forested pocket of land in Limington Maine more than 30 years ago.  Nestled inside this forest was the centuries-old Joshua Small Cemetery and Peter’s father requested to be buried nearby.  This inspired Peter to establish the Cedar Brook Burial Ground around Joshua Small in 2007 with his long-time partner, Joyce Foley. Joyce has continued to run Cedar Brook since Peter’s passing in 2013.  Three dirt trails enable access through the myriad trees, foliage and wildlife and mourners can select their own flat rock and hire a local engraver if they wish to commemorate their loved one at the gravesite.  

On a recent visit to the grounds, Joyce pointed out several veterans who had chosen to be buried at Cedar Brook, and whose graves were marked by military medallions.  There was a young boy whose family had purchased several adjoining plots so that he was tucked into his own grove of trees.  Two brothers had buried their father next to a large rock; they had both separately imagined him sitting on that rock in the same peaceful way he used to sit and fish.  

Joyce’s own house is right next to the natural burial ground, separated only by the namesake brook.  She feels that living so close to the burial ground fosters a sense of tranquility and an appreciation of the cyclical nature of death and life.   

As a founding member of Herland Forest, Walt Patrick continues to pursue his passion for living (and dying) sustainably in the Cascadian wilderness. For over 30 years, Walt and a group of kindred spirits have inspired visitors to engage with the land, including the opportunity to camp in and around the 20-acre cemetery where they have the opportunity to learn more about the interconnections of sustainable systems. Joined by the open hearts and capable hands of wool alchemist Opalyn and sexton Kirianna, the stewards and guardians of Herland Forest are dedicated to putting holistic thinking into action. To be buried among the forested hills and wildflower meadows of Herland Forest is to use one’s death to preserve living systems – just as Walt plans to.