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EcoEternity Forest offers another green burial option for North Carolinians

Access to green burials grounds and services in North Carolina has started to expand as more people look for alternatives to conventional death care and creative ways to protect natural areas from development.

The latest company to offer green burial services is EcoEternity, which will officially open a new EcoEternity Forest in Orange County on Sunday. The consecration ceremony will provide the first and only public opportunity for groups of people to check out the two-acre burial ground.

EcoEternity has a unique concept that should appeal to people considering more environmentally-responsible funeral services: a memorial forest where people can lease trees and bury their cremated remains there in a biodegradable urn. (I'm aware of three other green burial grounds in North Carolina, which I've mapped here. Let me know if I've missed a cemetery or service.)

The EcoEternity Forest at Chestnut Ridge is located on the property of a faith-based camp and retreat center west of Chapel Hill and the organization has the option to expand to 20 acres, said Jack Lowe, president of EcoEternity Forest USA. Lowe said so far 24 people have contacted him who are interested in leasing a tree.

EcoEternity Forests also exist in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia as well as Switzerland, Germany, and South Korea.

"It's spreading around the world and it's an alternative for people who want to be cremated," Lowe said.

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Tags: events; nature; green living

Posted by Morgan Josey Glover on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 3:13 pm

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thomasfriese

October 9, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

We and our mother earth can be happy that "death care" is becoming more environmentally-friendly. However, two critical aspects are mostly ignored in these discussions: meaningful memorialization, and perpetuity of the graves sites.

We need to find meaningful and attractive new ways to leave memorials for family and future humanity, ways that align with contemporary aesthetics and ethical values. We should remember that a human life is not only about its environmental impact. A tree or forest as a memorial is a good start but there is an issue here too – perpetuity of the memorial.

We need new ways to ensure that new places of memory and tribute remain undisturbed forever. A forest or a tree alone as memorial, however beautiful and therapeutic, is no less mortal than anyone of us. A forest fire, disease, even human intervention can, ultimately WILL kill it. We should be thinking more intelligently about combining these environmentally positive solutions with genuine and perpetual memorials. For example, why not use an engraved fieldstone below the tree to register and remember who is buried there? When the tree dies, which it will, the stone will remain in the forest. Even if the forest is somehow lost, God forbid, the memory remains in the stone.

Please visit Perpetua's Garden for ideas and discussion.

Thomas Friese
http://perpetuasgarden.org

Morgan Josey Glover

October 9, 2009 - 8:53 am EDT

Thomas, I visited your Web site and it would be great if one could find out what your proposed alternative is without having to go through a special sign-up page.

I am curious as to what your concept of "forever" is. Is that 200 years? 1,000 years or literally forever?