Green Funerals Vermont

 

Green Burial Grounds have been in existence in England for close to two decades. In England, the number of natural cemeteries is in the hundreds. Natural burial grounds are a more recent development in the United States with the first one being less than ten years old. There are currently twenty or so active with another twenty being planned.

 

In a green burial ground, the caretakers use environmentally friendly practices. The body is not allowed to be embalmed. The body is buried in a cloth burial shroud, plain pine box coffin, or other bio-degradable burial container. The grave may have a simple natural marker set level in the ground or may be marked with global positioning system coordinates.

 

The environmental practices extend to the maintenance of the natural cemetery as well. Natural burial grounds may be from a few acres to a hundred acres in size. Some may have a few acres that are landscaped and maintained. Others are mostly kept forever wild as field and forest with the burial fees from a few acres preserving the remaining acres. Others may have been working land that may some day return to use as working land. One example is in Maine where part of a tree farm is now a green cemetery, and may one day return to being part of the tree farm.

For folks in Vermont, the closest natural burial grounds are in New York and Maine.