A green or natural burial is an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burials that is becoming increasingly popular with Bequest’s clients. To prepare for a green burial, a body is wrapped in a shroud or interred in a pine box without embalming fluids, chemicals, vaults, and cement containers that often harm the surrounding environment. Utilizing biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials, the body is then buried about three feet below ground. Our clients also sometimes opt to be used as organic material to grow a tree. Similarly, cremated remains can be buried in a biodegradable container or spread across the land.
While in recent years there has been a growing desire for green burials, the concept is an age-old practice. Believing that a person’s body should return the universe as it came, Native American cultures practiced no other forms of burying their dead. In fact, green burials were the norm among Americans until embalming became necessary to return the bodies of Civil War soldiers to their homes.
Until recently, the state of Georgia required embalming even if a person chose to be cremated. Perhaps the popular trend towards environmental consciousness pushed lawmakers to reconsider arcane practices. Today, most states, including Georgia, agree that embalming should not be required. With less stringent laws, more and more ecological burial sites are popping up around Georgia. As of 2023, there are three cemeteries dedicated to green burials in Georgia including: Honey Creek Woodlands, Milton Fields Natural Burial Ground, and Whispering Hills Natural Green Cemetery and Memorial Nature Preserve.
Located in Conyers, Georgia, Honey Creek Woodlands is a part of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, opened in 2008, and has over 100 acres of land reserved for burial. Honey Creek views green burial as a way “to conserve nature by expanding the wildlife habitat, providing an environment for native plants to thrive, and providing clean air, and a cleaner watershed.” Honey Creek allows for the burial of bodies and of interred cremated remains. However, it does not permit families to spread their loved one’s ashes on its grounds.
Over the years, family members of those buried at Honey Creek have formed meaningful connections to the cemetery. One particular connection surrounds a bridge at the cemetery known as the “Bridge to Grace,” which was built by the family of a young child, Grace, who is interned at Honey Creek. Occasionally when her parents visited her gravesite, there was flooding on the bridge over Honey Creek, which complicated their trip. Seeing this problem encouraged the parents to raise money and help build the Bridge to Grace, which allows clear access to gravesites within the cemetery.
Milton Fields Natural Burial Ground
Milton Fields Natural Burial Grounds in Milton, Georgia is dedicated to “promot[ing] environmental preservation and land conservation.” They have seventeen acres reserved for burial, which is enough land to bury more than four thousand remains. Milton Fields allows for the burial of bodies and cremated remains. Unlike Honey Creek, it allows for the scattering of cremated remains.
Whispering Hills Natural Green Cemetery and Memorial Nature Preserve
In 2021 Whispering Hills Natural Green Cemetery and Memorial Nature Preserve in LaGrange, Georgia opened its gates to green burials. It similarly “aims to conserve the woodland that the [founding family] owns.” Whispering Hills permit bodies and cremated remains to be buried within their grounds, as well as the scattering of ashes within the cemetery. However, scattered remains must be “mixed with a specially formulated soil that will encourage plant growth.” Additionally, families must bring the remains to the Whispering Hills office four months prior to scattering to start “the composting process.”
Anyone interested in a green burial can contact these cemeteries for more information. If you are interested in an ecological burial or cremation or if you have specific desires for your remains it is important you note it in your estate plan. To set up a free 15 minute consultation to discuss amending your current estate plan or to start the estate planning process, please call (404) 500-7531, email hello@bequest.law, or go to our website bequest.law to fill out the new client inquiry form.