Acutely Environmental or Supremely Opportunistic?

"Cemeteries are really expensive and really terrible, and basically I just knew there had to be something better."
"We're trying to redesign the entire end-of-life experience."
"Some people want a tree that is totally isolated, and some people really want to be around people and be part of a fairy ring."

"The idea is to use cemetery law in the same way that protects normal cemeteries. Our focus is to go and find the most beautiful land in the area around a city … and then we’re protecting that land."

Sandy Gibson, chief executive, Better Place Forests, Santa Cruz, California

(Better Place Forests)

"They just go at night, scatter grandma, have a cup of champagne, and every day they drive by that park they know grandma is there."
"Why would they pay $20,000 to go to a memorial grove when they can scatter at any little park they want to for free?"
John O'Connor, Menlo Park Funerals

"She's about 60 years old [evergreen: madrone, with dark red bark], and I'm 63."
"Looking at her growth pattern you can see things have been hard at times because she's kind of curved, but she made it to the top to get to the sunlight."
Debra Lee, retired administrative assistant, San Jose, California

In the Santa Cruz forest, people can reserve memorial trees where their ashes can be spread after they die. (Better Place Forests)

Environmental consciousness has never been so vibrant. Not a day goes by when the public is not reminded of our stewardship of a planet that we have abused for far too long. People are urged to consider their actions through the lens of personal responsibility to nature, to our natural environment and the pollution we spew throughout our daily lives in energy use and exploiting natural resources. Society in general has become extremely conscious of the fragility of our geology and our environment. Extreme weather events have helped to focus the collective mind.

And now there's a fairly new start-up in -- where else? -- California, that promises to help people when they die to nourish the land. Traditional burials and cemeteries use land in conventional ways long accepted -- so long in fact, that archaeologists have discovered places where bodies have been perfectly preserved long past their thousand-year-old burials. So interment and memorial markers do not only reflect social traditions of hundreds, but of thousands of years. Often, when construction is halted in the middle of cities it is because the dig has unearthed unknown burial sites of antiquity.

There is now a forest south of Silicon Valley advertising their services for a more environmentally astute burial. A forest in Point Arena, south of Mendocino California, as well as another California location in Santa Cruz, has been developed where trees can be 'adopted' as one's final resting place if one thinks of 'dust returning to dust'. The idea is that people are invited to visit the forest as a kind of pre-arrangement, to select a tree that appeals to them and arrange for their ashes to be laid around that tree.

The company is not in the cremation business; the deceased would first have to be cremated, and the ashes brought to the forest to complete 'burial'. After which a plaque is installed similar to a gravestone in concept, identifying the individual whose remains are linked to the tree. The tree is considered the 'forever' home of the buried ashes; should a tree die, it would be replaced. The cost? from $3,000 up to $30,000, depending on the prestige of the tree, though an entry-level $970-communal tree burial is also available.

A trench is dug at the tree's roots -- measuring 90-by-60 centimeters -- the soil mixed with the ashes and with water. The soil is kept moist to enable bacteria to break down the remains. Some people choose to have their ashes mixed with that of their pets. Remember those ancient Egyptian tombs where slaves and animals were buried with their owners? The difference then was that it was in anticipation of renewing life after death and being reunited in the new life with those buried in continued service to the principal.

For an additional fee a digital memorial video can be made, so visitors can view a digital portrait of the deceased. The cemetery-forest competes with traditional funeral and plot burials that run in price from $15,000 to $20,000 in the area. So price comparison advantages the new concept, as well as the allure of the tranquility of a mature forest as the setting for one's final 'resting place'.

In the Santa Cruz forest there are around six thousand trees awaiting adoption. Various coloured ribbons are wrapped about them. Potential clients stroll about in the forest, assessing the qualities of the trees they view and ultimately find one that appeals to them. There is a ceremonial cutting of the ribbon when a customer selects the tree they plan to spend eternity with.

Better Place Forests