What is Natural Burial?

Natural burial is both ancient and modern. It is a return to the Great Cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth, reclaiming traditional practices for today’s world.

Herland’s vision of natural burial honors death’s role in this cycle, allowing bodies to nourish the earth using non-toxic, locally-sourced materials instead of embalming and sealed caskets.

From Conservation to Stewardship

Natural burial also serves as a means to protect land from destructive development. In Washington state, cemetery land is legally protected, making natural cemeteries powerful tools for conservation and restoration.

  • Herland Forest aims to expand its cemetery, bringing more mixed Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, and Oregon White Oak woodlands under stewardship.
  • Funds from burials support the forest’s resilience, including:
    • Establishing beneficial plants
    • Increasing fire resistance
    • Expanding wildlife habitat
Forest


Honoring Life’s Transitions

We provide families space to create their own rituals, ceremonies, and rites around death. These celebrations occur in a forest that grows with new life nourished by loved ones.

  • We are leaders in restoration ecology, stewardship, and green burial, utilizing regenerative practices to meet human needs while maintaining forest health.
  • Creating new traditions around death is vital to developing a new cultural relationship with death.


A Final Contribution

Natural burial offers a meaningful way to realize the truly life-giving potential of death, a chance to honor and re-enter the natural cycles of life. It provides an opportunity to celebrate the final passage surrounded with loved ones in a beautiful and meaningful forest setting. 

For generations to come, Herland Forest will remain a protected, quiet, natural place that sustains a vibrant and productive transitional ecosystem. We are grateful for the opportunity to provide a way for people to make a final contribution to the renewal of the earth.

Interested in learning more about natural burial? Contact us to explore your options.