Hullo!Thank you so much for such a thoughtful post about the benefits of natural burial! I know this is an old post but as someone who runs a forest cemetery, dedicated to natural burial in the US, I wanted to share a few things I have learned.
The most important is that when you give a body back to the Earth in a natural burial, the mycelial network is what distributes the nutrients in the body back into the ecosystem that it is buried in. Mycelial networks extend across entire continents. And one thing that we have found is that there are many people who don’t feel the need to come back to our cemetery to visit their dead because anywhere they go outside they are connected to land that has been sustained by the body of the person that they love by the shared mycelial network. So there is no environmental burden from cemetery visits.
The other is that those tree pods need to be buried so deep that you lose all the benefits of a shallow burial. If you wish to have a tree grow where you are buried it is best to be buried in a meadow that will reforest, or directly in a forest itself.
Also- you don’t ever have to buy a shroud. You can be buried in a cotton sheet or quilt. The ultimate recycling!
There are many people dedicated to natural death care a natural burial in the UK. I hope that you can connect with them! If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me here.
Thank you so much for your knowledge on this! I appreciate that you stopped by to add some meat to the bones of this piece. I've decided to pop on here a bit more often, so next time hopefully I'll be replying more promptly!
Hullo!Thank you so much for such a thoughtful post about the benefits of natural burial! I know this is an old post but as someone who runs a forest cemetery, dedicated to natural burial in the US, I wanted to share a few things I have learned.
The most important is that when you give a body back to the Earth in a natural burial, the mycelial network is what distributes the nutrients in the body back into the ecosystem that it is buried in. Mycelial networks extend across entire continents. And one thing that we have found is that there are many people who don’t feel the need to come back to our cemetery to visit their dead because anywhere they go outside they are connected to land that has been sustained by the body of the person that they love by the shared mycelial network. So there is no environmental burden from cemetery visits.
The other is that those tree pods need to be buried so deep that you lose all the benefits of a shallow burial. If you wish to have a tree grow where you are buried it is best to be buried in a meadow that will reforest, or directly in a forest itself.
Also- you don’t ever have to buy a shroud. You can be buried in a cotton sheet or quilt. The ultimate recycling!
There are many people dedicated to natural death care a natural burial in the UK. I hope that you can connect with them! If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me here.
Thank you so much for your knowledge on this! I appreciate that you stopped by to add some meat to the bones of this piece. I've decided to pop on here a bit more often, so next time hopefully I'll be replying more promptly!
I hope it didn’t come across as too know-it-all. I’m just genuinely excited to connect with people who are thinking about this.