Wumple.com

2007/12/27

Green Prairie Cemeteries Could Protect and Restore Prairies

Filed under: — Stormwind @ 8:13 pm

Butterfly in the prairieEnvision a green cemetery in the middle of a restored tallgrass prairie, with native flowers blooming in the spring alongside lush native grasses.  Could you imagine a more beautiful way to spend eternity while helping to protect and restore an endangered ecosystem and provide habitat for grassland birds, butterflies, and other prairie wildlife?

Sales of plots in the conservation burial ground would fund the prairie conservation and restoration at the prairie cemetery and an adjacent tallgrass prairie remnant.  A conservation easement or outright ownership by a land trust would protect both the prairie cemetery and the adjacent prairie remnant in perpetuity.

Flat headstones would allow haying or cutting the prairie cemetery along with the native prairie remnant along side of it that provides the seed for the prairie restoration.

Biodegradable coffins and an absence of preservatives would make the project further green.  A certification from the Green Burial Council would help assure families that ecological practices were being followed.

Could you fund or be a partner in a green prairie cemetery project?  Contact the Native Prairies Association of Texas if so!

4 responses to “Green Prairie Cemeteries Could Protect and Restore Prairies”

  1. Stormwind says:

    Another green burial article, this one from The State:

    http://www.thestate.com/living/story/272948.html

    Dust to dust: Green burials turning death into healer of land

    With his father’s death in mind, Campbell in 1998 decided to try to marry the multibillion-dollar U.S. funeral industry with the nation’s growing land conservation and environmental movements. On 38 acres in western South Carolina, he opened the first conservation burial ground in the United States, a stunningly beautiful stretch of woods, grassland and lush creek beds where people are buried with the simplicity of centuries past and where the proceeds go toward preserving and restoring the land.

    Known as “green burial,” the concept, which is gaining popularity nationwide, essentially follows the religious pronouncement of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

  2. Natural Burial Around the World

    The modern concept of natural burial began in the UK in 1993 and has since spread across the globe. According the Centre for Natural Burial, http://naturalburial.coop there are now several hundred natural burial grounds in the United Kingdom and half a dozen sites across the USA, with others planned in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and even China.

    A natural burial allows you to use your funeral as a conservation tool to create, restore and protect urban green spaces.

    The Centre for Natural Burial provides comprehensive resources supporting the development of natural burial and detailed information about natural burial sites around the world. With the Natural Burial Co-operative newsletter you can stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the rapidly growing trend of natural burial including, announcements of new and proposed natural burial sites, book reviews, interviews, stories and feature articles.

    The Centre for Natural Burial

  3. green burial, natural burial… all great concepts, basically an old tradition.
    Did you know…
    Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
    ~ embalming fluid: 827,060 gallons, which includes formaldehyde
    ~ caskets: 90,272 tons of steel
    ~ caskets: 2,700 tons of copper and bronze
    ~ caskets: 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods
    ~ vaults: 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete
    ~ vaults: 14,000 tons of steel

    for more ideas green funeral ideas and products check out http://www.funeralideas.com

  4. Martin Mittelmark says:

    I am looking to set up a series of conservancy burial sites, first in the United States and then elsewhere. Can haying occur over the interred? How deep must the bodies be buried to be able to hay?

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