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The Fernwood Eco-Cemetery Offers Natural Burial for a Green Afterlife
Posted By
Catherine Winter
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Business,Design,Landscape Architecture,News |
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Fernwood itself has existed for over a century, though their natural burial offerings are fairly new. The Mill Valley, CA, establishment is a funeral home, crematory and cemetery with an underlying mission of completing a longterm land restoration project through eco-friendly burials.
In contrast to a traditional burial, which uses toxic embalming fluids, caskets lined with heavy metals and harmful finishes, and invasive excavation of the land, a natural burial uses a biodegradable casket without embalming fluids or a concrete vault. Native trees and plants are grown above the burial site, and Fernwood uses GPS to digitally keep track of gravesites. They also offer a digital “Lifestories” biography as a means of preserving memories of the deceased.
+ Fernwood
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When it comes time to bury a loved one, our otherwise expansive worldview is often funneled down to the immediate and necessary. Thinking of the environmental impact of final arrangements is rarely a priority, but there are people out there who are to a
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Tall trees and indigenous flowering plants are central points at the Fernwood natural cemetery.
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Fernwood is one of the oldest cemeteries in America, with gravestones dating back centuries. All manner of wildlife wanders freely in among the graves; a testament to the health of the natural surroundings.
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Many natural graves are marked by GPS, rather than headstones or markers, allowing the landscape to remain pristine.
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Flooded with sunshine and surrounded by trees, this natural burial ground is a far cry from grey, morose graveyards.
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The entryway to the consecrated Jewish section of Fernwood cemetery.
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The sun rises over one of the natural burial areas.
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A statue of Guan Yin, a Buddhist deity of compassion, watches over another section of the burial ground.
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