In July of 2020, Herland Forest became the first facility in the country to be licensed to perform the natural organic reduction of human remains. In December, we began the first reduction, and incorporated what we learned into the design of the second cradle.

As soon as the second cradle was put into use, we started building the third cradle, and so on. With the construction of each new cradle, we’ve incorporated subtle improvements. Now, six months later, we’re working on building our sixth cradle.

It might seem like it would have been quicker to construct lots of cradles at once, but that would not have left room to steadily improve our equipment and  techniques. This more organic method of building one unit at a time enables us to incorporate what we learn.

Now that the early cradles are being emptied, part of the process of getting each cradle ready for the next reduction involves using the interval between one reduction and the next to incorporate what we’ve learned.