“The Elder Tree Program is a broad-based trickle-funding platform modelled after the working of a healthy forest ecosystem.”

-Andrew Schreiber, Co-Founder of Herland Forest

Herland Forest is a young Cemetery with big goals. While the revenue from the sale of plots provides for the base-line expenses of operating a natural burial enterprise, there is often no funding left over for the big-picture mission of Herland.

After conversations with some of our Guardians, we came to understand that many people are looking for ways to support the research and conservation work being done by by cooperative groups like Herland Forest—regardless of their desire to be buried naturally.

The Elder Tree Program is designed to offer the steady, reliable trickle funding needed to further to big-picture conservation and stewardship goals of the Cemetery—a group that is actively restoring degraded land while working to grow and sustain the skills and knowledge necessary to live rightly with the land.

Elder Tree Supporters will receive updates on how their monthly gifts are making an impact, as well as free admission to Herland Forest’s and the Windward Community’s open house events.

Modelled After Nature

As a cemetery of land stewards, we look to natural systems for the models we need to help us achieve our holistic goals.

The Elder Tree Program is modelled after the symbiotic mycorrhiza (myco meaning fungi and rhiza meaning root) networks within the a mature forest ecosystem—wherein older well-established trees provide energy manufactured from sunlight, to fungal networks who utilize that energy to do the important work of gathering nutrients and making them available to both the Elder trees and the younger establishing trees alike.

With the help of our Elder Trees, we hope to ensure a solid base to support the current work being done to enable the health and well-being of the forest for generations to come.

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