The Centre for Natural Burial

The latest in green burial.
By Joe Sehee, Slate
Some cultures befriend death as best they can, with burial customs that embrace decay and regeneration. The American way of death has been to stave off decay with formaldehyde, bullet-proof caskets, and concrete burial vaults. But that may be changing.

By William Kates, Associated Press
NEWFIELD, N.Y. — It sits on the eastern fringe of New York’s Finger Lakes region and is bounded on three sides by 8,000 acres of protected forests: the perfectly natural place to spend an eternity. The 93-acre Greensprings Natural Cemetery is the first of its kind in New York and one […]

By Bruce Geiselman, Waste News.com
Billy Campbell is a rural doctor, an environmentalist and something of a pioneer — opening the nation´s first “green cemetery.” Dr. Campbell also jokes that he operates the nation´s only combination doctor´s office and cemetery office. “I´m pretty sure we´re the only one,” he said, laughing.

The latest trend in undertaking gives new meaning to the term ‘dust to dust’
By Patricia Leigh Brown, The Sydney Morning Herald
TOMMY Odom’s remains lie on a steep, windswept hill at Fernwood Cemetery, New Jersey, beneath an oak sapling, a piece of petrified wood and a bundle of dried sage tied with a lavender ribbon. When […]

Lori Valigra, National Geographic News
A burial in outer space seems a fitting farewell for James Doohan, the actor who played the beloved engineer “Scotty” on Star Trek. To honor his final wishes, some of Doohan’s ashes will be shot into space this fall, along with a CD of tributes from fans and loved ones.
Celebrities aren’t […]

By Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times
MILL VALLEY, Calif. - Tommy Odom’s remains lie on a steep wind-swept hill at Forever Fernwood, beneath an oak sapling, a piece of petrified wood and a bundle of dried sage tied with a lavender ribbon.
When he died in a traffic accident last year, Mr. Odom, 41, became the […]

Reclaiming the realities and rituals of death
By Nancy Rommelmann, LA Times Cover Story
For centuries in America, we tended to our dead. People died at home, and relatives prepared the body, laid it out in the parlor and sat by as callers paid final respects. The body was buried in the family cemetery, if there was […]

By Megan Heidlberg, WNEG32
A trail in Westminster, South Carolina, isn’t your typical forest trail. It’s actually a burial ground too. Scattered amongst the trees, leaves, and waterfall lies more than 20 graves.

Back-to-nature burials in biodegradable caskets conserve land
By Barbara Basler, AARP Newsletter
In lovely woods just outside the tiny town of Westminster, S.C., discreetly scattered among the tall pines and poplars, are 20 graves, many hand-dug by Billy Campbell.
The graves, mounds of earth dotted with wildflowers and bathed in dappled sunlight, are marked with flat stones engraved […]

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — For most mortals, talk of death is about as pleasant as a paper cut. But Jerri Lyons stands poised with a psychic Band-Aid.
“We’re fine with birth, but we’ve become so separated from the passage of life to death,” says the dulcet-toned grandmother. “We need to accept […]