Think about your final resting place for a moment. Would you prefer to be surrounded by tombstones and lawns, or by glades and meadows full of birds and butterflies? If your answer is glades and meadows, then a natural burial ground will be the place for you.

A natural burial is the return of a body to the earth as simply as possible. Bodies are not embalmed, but wrapped in a biodegradable shroud or placed in a simple casket and buried in protected green space.

It’s a way of combining an eco-friendly interment with land conservation.

Natural burial grounds are spreading, fast. Started in Wales in 1991, there are now more than 225 sites opened or planned, large and small, scattered across the United Kingdom. There are more than twenty sites in the US, with twenty more in development. In Canada, there are currently three sites: Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria, British Columbia, Union Cemetery in Cobourg Ontario, and Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton Ontario, with more in the planning stages.

More and more natural burial grounds are being established to allow caring individuals to fulfill their wishes to be buried simply, in a manner that helps protect beautiful natural places. They want the option for the expense of their funeral to go towards establishing and preserving natural spaces, rather than mahogany caskets, formaldehyde and marble markers.