greenburials

environmentally sound manner.

Table of Contents
What are the benefits of a green cemetery over a traditional cemetery?
Is a conservation easement important when considering a green burial?
Is cremation an environmentally sound option?
Have many people chosen green burial?
Where can I find green/natural cemeteries in the United States?

What are the benefits of a green cemetery over a traditional cemetery?
Clearly we see problems at older "traditional" cemeteries. Many have
few or no trees, in others, the grounds have been destroyed through the
use of herbicides. Drainage problems can occur and herbicide use
leads to water pollution.

Cemeteries can play an important social and environmental role. 2.2
million acres were lost to development according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation report
issued for 1997 through 2001. Everyday, development is taking over
the natural environments created over eons. A natural burial takes place
in a natural environment where native flora and wildlife flourish. A
green cemetery provides habitat for endemic birds and animals,
returning lands to their native grasses, flowers and shrubs.

A green burial reduces environmental impact and conservation
easements preserve our open spaces, important not only to plants and
wildlife…we find serenity when close to nature. Interment in a
beautiful and natural setting honors those we love.

Is a conservation easement important when considering a green burial?

It is important to conserve our natural landscapes before they disappear
completely by encroaching development. Conservation easements can
ensure that no further development will be allowed on the land, as all
future owners of the land would be bound by the easement.   The land
can be forever protected.

Is cremation an environmentally sound option?
There are air pollution issues caused by cremation, even the fillings in
our teeth contribute to the mercury in the atmosphere. Older burners
have been replaced by double burners which burn off many pollutants,
however cremation releases dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric
acid, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Many don't realize, but
cremation requires a container. Choosing simple unlined coffins
without chipboard and plastics can help reduce pollution.

Interesting ideas have recently been developed to deal with cremated
remains.

www.eternalreefs.com - Eternal Reefs Inc. is the only company to offer
underwater burial at sea in artificial reefs. By mixing cremated remains
with concrete, these artificial reefs provide a lasting environmentally
friendly memorial for families and individuals that choose cremation.
The number one reason people have chosen cremation? It is less
expensive than a traditional burial (which with a service can be more
than $7000). Many more companies are offering bio-degradable urns
than just a decade ago, please see links for cremation urns.

A natural burial in a green cemetery is an affordable cremation
alternative. Families do not have to incur the cost of caskets,
embalming, or burial vaults and green burials do not contribute
pollutants to the atmosphere.

Have many people chosen green burial?

A recent AARP poll asked: "Which type of burial is most appealing?"
Only 8% wanted a traditional cemetery burial and only 18% chose
cremation.

70.4% of those polled through the AARP website chose Green Burial.

See News & Research for AARP's article

Where can I find green cemeteries in the United States?

GreenSprings Natural Cemetery - 93 acres in New York, opened in
2006 www.naturalburial.org

Forever Fernwood - 32 acres in California, opened in 2004 www.
foreverfernwood.com

Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 350
acres in Florida. Opened in 2002. www.glendalenaturepreserve.org

Ramsey Creek Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 32 acres in South
Carolina. Opened in 1996. www.memorialecosystems.com

White Eagle Memorial Preserve - 20 acre cemetery is set within 1300
wild acres. www.naturalburialground.com

Foxfield Preserve - 43 acres in Ohio

www.foxfieldpreserve.org

Honey Creek Woodlands - Georgia

www.honeycreekwoodlands.com

Eternal Rest Memories Park - Florida

eternalrest.com

Cedarbrook Burial Ground - Maine

Steelmantown Cemetery - New Jersey

Praire Wilderness Cemetery - Colorado (under construction currently)

The body is prepared without chemical preservatives such as are used in embalming and is
buried in a biodegradable coffin or simple shroud.
A natural burial preserve often uses grave markers that do not intrude on the landscape. These
natural markers can include shrubs and trees, or a flat indigenous stone which may be engraved.
The burial ground may be designed with centralised memorial structures where visitors can sit
within an emerging forest. As in all cemeteries, there are records kept of the exact location of
each interment, often using survey techniques such as GIS.
Planting native trees, shrubs, and flowers on or near the grave establishes a living memorial and
helps form a protected wildlife preserve. Irrigation is not used, nor are pesticides and herbicides
applied.
Cemetery legislation protects natural burial preserves in perpetuity from future development
while the establishment of a conservation easement prevents future owners from altering the
original intent for these burial grounds. For people who are mindful of the cyclical nature of life,
a natural burial is an alternative to conventional burial methods.

[edit] Embalming
Embalming's secondary purpose is to retard decomposition and as such it is inconsistent with
the objectives of eco-cemetery and most sites will not permit the interment of embalmed bodies.
No state or province in North America requires routine embalming of bodies. Refrigeration or
dry ice can be substitute for embalming. However this does nothing to restore the appearance of
the deceased to a lifelike state for a viewing and the body will continue to decompose unless
completely frozen. Special circumstances such as an extended time between death and burial
and transportation of remains on commercial flights, may necessitate embalming.
Formaldehyde, the most common embalming fluid, is biodegradable and even well embalmed
bodies will decompose after normal ground (rather than vault) burial, save in exceptional
circumstances. However, in recent years a green burial movement has protested the use of
formaldehyde, which oxidizes to formic acid, the toxin in bee stings and fire ants, adding what
may be considered pollution to the ground as the bodies decay.

[edit] Coffins
Most traditional caskets are made from chipboard covered in a thin veneer. Handles are usually
plastic designed to look like brass. The chipboard requires glue to stick the wood particles
together. Some glues that are used, such as those that contain formaldehyde, are seen as
environmentally unfriendly. There is concern that such glues will cause pollution when they are
burned during cremation or degrading in the ground. However, not all engineered wood
products are produced using formaldehyde glues.
More expensive caskets and coffins are often manufactured using exotic and in some cases
endangered species of wood and designed to prevent decomposition. While there are generally
no restrictions on the type of coffin used, most sites encourage the use of environmentally
friendly coffins made from cardboard or wicker. A simple cotton shroud is another option.

[edit] Environmental issues with conventional burial
Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods (caskets)
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
827,060 US gallons (3,130 m³) of embalming fluid, which most commonly includes
formaldehyde. [1]
(Compiled from statistics by Casket and Funeral Association of America, Cremation
Association of North America, Doric Inc., The Rainforest Action Network, and Mary
Woodsen, Pre-Posthumous Society)

[edit] A history of natural burial by country

[edit] Canada
Mike Salisbury is a leading advocate of the natural burial movement in Canada and the current
president of the Natural Burial Co-operative in Toronto[2]. A full member of the Ontario
Association of Landscape Architects and the principal of Earthartist Landscape Architecture,
Salisbury provides planning design and consultation to groups throughout North America
involved in establishing new natural burial grounds. [3] Featured in the 2005 CBC expose on
the Canadian funeral industry "Outside the Box", Salisbury has helped develop natural burial
standards that encourage sustainability in the death care industry and facilitate ecological
restoration and landscape level conservation.[4]

[edit] United Kingdom
The first eco-cemetery was created at Carlisle Cemetery in the United Kingdom in 1993 and
was called woodland burial. Since that date over 200 natural burial sites have been created in
the UK making it one of the fastest growing environmental movements.[citation needed]

[edit] United States
Billy Campbell, a rural doctor, an environmentalist, and a pioneer in the Green Burial Movement
in the USA, opened the first modern "green cemetery" in North America.
In 1998, he and his wife, Kimberley, opened the Ramsey Creek Preserve in upstate South
Carolina. It specializes in burials that eschew embalming, traditional coffins, and headstones in
favor of a simpler, less costly, more natural approach. Graves are hand-dug, and instead of
using expensive, finished coffins, the dead are buried in shrouds or a plain wooden box without
a vault or grave liner.
Joe Sehee is a leading advocate of the Green Burial Movement in the United States. Joe is the
executive director of the Green Burial Council, a non-profit organization he founded to
encourage sustainability in the death care industry and to use the burial process as a means of
facilitating ecological restoration and landscape level conservation.
The organization recently established the nation's first certifiable standards for cemeteries,
funeral providers, and cremations facilities. Conventional funeral providers in eight states will
now be offering the Green Burial Council approved burial package, providing a way for
consumer to identify death care professionals willing to assist them with environmentally
conscious end-of-life rituals.
Tyler Cassity rose to prominence in the death care industry by taking a bankrupt cemetery in a
borderline part of Los Angeles and turning it into Hollywood Forever, where he had movies
projected on the side of Rudolph Valentino’s mausoleum, and displayed his “LifeStories,” which
are A&E-style video biographies of the dead. Tyler Cassity has been involved in several films
[5] and has worked as a consultant on HBO's Six Feet Under.
The Fernwood Burial Ground in Marin County's Mill Valley dates from the 19th century and is
adjacent to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Tyler Cassity's Forever Enterprises
purchased it in 2004. The Fernwood property is 32 acres with most of it set aside for natural
burial with no tombstones or caskets. Instead, bodies are buried there in ways that aid natural
decomposition, and survivors can locate their loved-ones’ burial site with a handheld device that
contains a GPS location finder.
Mary Woodsen is a trustee and officer (president) of Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve
in Newfield, New York.
Mary also a long-time member of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, which protects 8,000 acres (32
km²) in the Finger Lakes and Southern Rivers regions, the Cayuga chapter of Keeping Track (a
national organization working with local groups around the country that document the presence
of keystone wildlife species in their areas, the better to inform decisions about local and regional
land use), a task force looking at conservation zoning in her township of Danby, the Society of
Environmental Journalists, the Society of Conservation Biology, and the National Association of
Science Writers.
Greensprings Natural Cemetery was the third natural burial ground to be established in North
America.[1] One-hundred acres of rolling hilltop meadows south of Cayuga Lake in New
York's Finger Lakes region. Greensprings on Irish Hill is bounded by 4,000 acre (16 km²)
Arnot Forest and 4,000 acre (16 km²) Newfield State Forest.
Mark Dahlby currently serves as executive director of the green burial land trust Trust for
Natural Legacies [6]. Trust for Natural Legacies is the first green cemetery organization to utilize
eco-cemeteries as a conservation tool for traditional non-profit land trusts. Mark is also an
attorney focusing on environmental, real estate and estate planning matters in Wisconsin, is the
Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club's John Muir Chapter and is a leader in environmental
education in the state of Wisconsin. Mark previously worked with Joe Sehee, Mike Salisbury
and others in moving forward the development of national standards for green burial practices.
In 2008, Theresa Kay Purcell and Nicole LaBissoniere formed the Natural Burial Project in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are currently heading the Minnesota Chapter of Trust for Natural
Legacies and are working to establish the first conservation cemetery in the Midwest.
Gordon Maupin, Executive Director of The Wilderness Center, Inc. a nonprofit nature center
and land trust in Ohio started Foxfield Preserve. Foxfield Preserve is the first nature preserve
cemetery to be operated by a nonprofit conservation organization. Foxfield Preserve is formerly
agricultural land. The Wilderness Center is restoring part of the site to native prairie grasses and
wildflowers and reforesting part of the preserve. Foxfield Preserve is adjacent to The
Wilderness Center's 600-acre headquarters tract near Wilmot, Ohio.

[edit] See also
 Sky burial
 Promession
 Islamic burial

[edit] References
1. ^ Embalming fluid chemically changes in the act of preserving the body and is not largely
present as a fluid. This figure refers to embalming fluid before it is introduced to the body.
2. ^ "Natural Burial Co-operative Members" (webpage). Natural Burial Co-operative (June
2006). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
3. ^ "Earthartist - Spiritual Burial Landscapes for a Greener "Beyond"" (webpage). Alternative
Funeral Monitor. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
4. ^ "Natural Burial, Outside the Box" (webpage). The Content Factory. CBC Radio One.
Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
5. ^ "Tyler Cassity" (webpage). The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-07-02.
6. ^ "Trust for Natural Legacies" (webpage). Trust for Natural Legacies (May 2007). Retrieved
on 2007-05-01.

[edit] External links

[edit] Organizations
 Centre for Natural Burial. Information and resources supporting the global natural burial
movement: a complete listing and description of natural burial cemeteries in North America
Europe and the UK and a comprehensive archive of natural burial magazine and newspaper
articles dating back to the mid 1990's.
 The Green Burial Council. Based in the USA, the Council is an independent, non-profit
organization founded to encourage ethical and sustainable practices in the death care industry
and has established "Green Certified" protocols for cemetery site selection, memorial nature
preserve operators, funeral providers and cremation facilities. The Center offers memberships
for organizations meeting their stringent environmental standards.
 Memorial Ecosystems. Formed in 1996 by Dr. Billy Campbell, Memorial Ecosystems offers
consulting services in conservation Burial Set up and Start up, creating partnerships and joint
ventures.
 Funeral Help. Consumers and industry experts providing information on the funeral process.
 Funeral Consumers Alliance. Celebrating 40 years of protecting a consumer's right to choose
a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral.
 Association of Natural Burial Grounds. Based in the United Kingdom, this organization offers
advice on "How To Set Up a Natural Burial Grounds" publishes a "Code of Practice" and offers
a newsletter for members and several publications for the general public.
 Earthartist Landscape Architecture. Specializes in the design and development of eco-
cemeteries.

[edit] Natural burial preserves
 Cedar Brook Burial Ground, US
 Ramsey Creek Nature Preserve
 Honey Creek Woodlands
 Trust For Natural Legacies
 Prairie Wilderness Cemetery
 Greensprings Natural Cemetery
 Glendale Nature Preserve
 Natural Burial Co-operative
 Foxfield Preserve
 Olney Green Burial Ground, UK
 Green Lane Burial Field Powys Wales
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_burial"