Welcome!

For donations: please go to https://CathedralTreesSanctuary.org/donations

Thank you for your support and donation!

CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE SLIDESHOW go to: https://youtu.be/Q4_vdnoDWnY

Children listening to the trees. (Photo: Alessandro Pucci, Creative Commons)

Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary

1467 Siskiyou Blvd. Box 313

Ashland, OR 97520

(541) 500-7611

“Imperceptibly, Nature builds these mighty pillars…in the cathedral of the forest.”

SANCTUARY NEWS FLASH: Summer 2025

Dear friends,

Success! We did it! We have, along with several very generous Board member donors, acquired the land needed to establish our conservation and restoration multi-use burial sanctuary and preserve! The Sanctuary will provide a state-licensed conservation/restoration burial as a non-profit public service cemetery beginning 2026 once we receive our state license. Your donation can provide you with a significant tax deduction on your federal taxes: In addition, it is with great excitement that we write to you regarding a fortuitous opportunity we have through the end of December 2025: You get a 100% tax deduction to apply to your federal taxes this year and up to 5 years forward if you make your donation now, before we receive our state cemetery license, according to IRS federal tax law. This means for some donors that you don’t have to pay federal taxes, as has been the case for one of our donors, Joan Porter of Ashland. Joan assisted with the land acquisition along with several board members, and in the process, has been able to reduce her federal taxes significantly!

This August, we acquired 42+ acres in the Colestin area (Mt Ashland Watershed) about 20 minutes south of downtown Ashland. It is off Colestin Road in the Colestin Valley, with wonderful views of Mt. Ashland foothills, Pilot Rock and Mt. Shasta. We are now raising monies for road repair, a large signage, a trailer and utility vehicle, and a 4-season cedar pagoda to accommodate families during a inclement weather. 3 Donations of $3000 or 2 for the $5000 large tree plot will pay for basic road repairs. Once we get our license for burials, the Friends of CTS will gift you a free tree and plot for each donation. Your donation supports much needed restoration of the land, infrastructure, and low-cost burials for those in the Tri-County area who cannot afford anything more than a polluting cremation.

The $3000 tree plots are located in the woodland, or in a specific family plot, or in a specified area such as the Jewish Grove or Unity Grove. Trees at the $5000 level ( Mountain Sequoia or native Sugar Pine) will be planted in the “Sequoia Tree Walkway” with a choice of the magnificent Mountain sequoia (Sequoia giganteum) or Pinus Lambertiana, one per donor. Please also check out my (Diana’s) forthcoming book, Restoring America: Everyone’s Guide to the Revolution in Natural, Conservation, and Restoration Deathcare, there are about 25 public health/environment benefits to you from conservation & restoration deathcare! This is the result of 10 years of research and is forthcoming from the CalPoly-Humboldt State University Digital Press (free online for donors May 2026).

Three ways to donate: 1) You can write a tax-deductible check to Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary, or 2) Bank wire from your account to Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary, Rogue Credit Union account #600.161.0559, Routing # 323.274.775, or 3) Transfer of stock to the Friends’ Charles Schwab account #7466-3777. Thank you for considering our public health alternative to industrial cremation, environmental health, and planning ahead for your financial wellbeing.

Yours very sincerely,

Dr. Diana Cunningham and Michael Murphy CFA, and Board members of the Friends of CTS

The Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary’s non-profit mission has a four-fold purpose:

1) To offer all the people of the tri-state areas (Oregon, California and Nevada) affordable, accessible, non-polluting deathcare as a conservation/restoration burial preserve, with Oregon state licensing and certification by the Green Burial Council. The Sanctuary will be owned and managed by the Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary and held in legal perpetuity through an independent land trust according to GBC certification requirements.

2) To be a model for other conservation/restoration burial projects across the U.S. in developing GBC-certified burial preserves using oak and other regional native species in adding to Dr. Campbell’s long term plan for “million acres of American conservation preserves.” To create self-funding revenue for long-term woodland, meadow and soil restoration and land preservation for endangered species such as the Oregon White Oak with Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network.

3) To provide a culturally and emotionally safe environment for all traditions to fulfill natural grief and deathcare rights in a natural environment dedicated fully to deathcare. People have the option to help restore the earth with a native sapling planted at their plot as part of a large grove and ecosystem restoration.

4) To allow the average person to have an affordable burial with a range of choices from a meadow burial ($1,000 for low income); or $3,000 for a plot with a native tree planted graveside. The majority of people in Oregon (56%) do not have the emergency funds for basic deathcare and are forced for financial reasons to have a polluting cremation which emits mercury and “the dirty dozen” emissions according to science, despite surveys showing 61% would prefer a natural burial (Green Burial Council.)

Cathedral Trees Sanctuary

Established 2015

Cathedral Trees Sanctuary is a newly acquired living multi-use preserve in the Colestin Valley area of Ashland Oregon. After a number of years of land search we finally found a large-acre preserve suitable for both certified conservation deathcare and grove restoration. During the Pandemic our co-founder, Dr Diana Cunningham wrote the guidebook on the natural, conservation and restoration burial movement, titled Restoring America: Everyone’s Guide to the Revolution in Natural, Conservation, and Restoration Deathcare (CalPoly-Humboldt State University, May 2026). Our non-profit sanctuary will offer inspirational, beautiful conservation deathcare with a “Restoration Burial,” the first in the U.S. In 2015, after her husband had a brush with death, Dr. Cunningham had the idea of planting a native tree at each burial mound as a way to help restore an ecosystem of groves. Later in her research, she read about how Chief Joseph in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon experienced a similar sentiment in his famous statement, “Soon it will be my time to give back my body to the earth. My spirit and soul will remain with you on this sacred land.” Although he was exiled from his land for some years, he felt a deep connection to the land and a deep loyalty to the Earth that sustained him throughout his life. Death, for him, was a necessary return of his body, a giving back to the Earth in gratitude for after a lifetime of sustenance.

The Sanctuary in Colestin is located in the southern foothills of the Mt. Ashland Watershed and is magical, with views of Pilot Rock and Mt. Shasta in the distance. The Sanctuary is surrounded by 2,000 acres of forever-preserved land with the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and the Mariposa Preserve. Historically, the 19th-century town of the Cole Family (“Coles Town”) was rich with the original native forest of Oregon Sugar Pines, the highly-sought after Sugar Pines used by the Takelma and Shasta peoples for food (sugar pine nuts) and medicine. Other trees we can plant in this ecosystem are the endangered Oregon white (Garry) oak, California black oak, the threatened Western Mountain Sequoia and the Pacific dogwood (only in the Walkway near Indian Creek that runs through the property.) We are helping Mother Nature re-store the living soil and groves where natural burials nourish the soil and sequester intoxicants, and provide transformation around “the good death” and heartfulness. We come together to make a positive and profound impact on individuals and the wider ecosystem that humans need in order to live, breathe, and be sustained in this delicate biosphere we call Home.

We are an IRS tax-exempt 509(a)(2) public service, community-endorsed non-profit that raises money for all people in the tri-state area to have access to our conservation and restoration cemetery. Donors and reservers of a tree burial plot may take a federal tax deduction, for up to 5 years of annual taxes, according to IRS tax rules. Unlike most conservation cemeteries in the country that charge double or triple the cost of a cremation, we make our fees accessible so a polluting cremation is not the only choice for many people. Our own family and community is connected by a deep aspiration for the truth around what death and natural deathcare really is, learning and growing through the 21st-century natural deathcare movements that are rooted in all ancient traditions. To date, a GBC-certified natural, conservation, or our own restoration burial with a tree, is the best choice and the least polluting of all “natural” deathcare options, based on the standards of the Green Burial Council, Conservation Burial Alliance, and research from the International Academy of Oral and Medical Toxicology (IAOMT). This is a long-term process for us of waking up, growing old together, and caring for the living, restoring Earth together with you, the trees, our volunteer stewards and community partners.

The Sanctuary is located on sacred ground, because once we bury loved ones in a loving way the earth becomes especially sacred for us as human beings. The land is the former homeland of the Northern Shasta tribes and the southern Takelma tribes. The Applegate trail of the Caucasian settlers runs through the Nepal Road area, alongside Indian Creek which emerges from the Mt Ashland watershed and feeds into Cottonwood Creek. The land is now cared for by the Murphy-Cunningham family along with educated volunteer stewards, “The Guild of the Tree and Spade.” It is a home to dozens of species, some rare and endangered, and so public education is important for their welfare. We’re restoring this transformational and magical place in nature, held in legal perpetuity and surrounded by the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Respectfully, we are open for private burials and their visitors. At this time we are not open to the public due to restoration and conservation needs — but we are open to the public for certain benefits and free events through the seasons. Because the land itself is in a long process of healing from deforestation, soil compaction and creek restoration, public access is minimized during this initial restoration period.

The public is invited to various events such as the following free or fundraiser events:

Mid-June Open-house: Love, Wild Roses, and Taking Care of Our Own

Candlelight Sequoia Walk and Memorial Evening (early December benefit)

Colestin Comfort Christmas Campfire ( free; mid-December)

Candlemass Candlelighting Remembrance (free; February)

Dogwood Springtime Daze Walk (in time)

Visit our website for future events.

From left to right; Anya Kumara, Advisory Board; Rev. Kathy Zavada, Unity Community of Ashland Oregon;

Dr, Diana Cunningham, co-founder FoCTS; Joan Porter, Advisory Board.

Newsletter Fall 2024

Since 2015, we’ve been working to create a conservation and restoration sanctuary. In 2018, after looking for land in several regions along with West Coast, we found a property just outside Ashland, Oregon that was perfect for the project. We did our homework and found that the land fulfilled all the needs for conservation certification through the Green Burial Council in Northern California. We moved our family from Bonny Doon to Ashland for our girls to attend schools in August and Diana left her part-time practice to set up the non-profit. Michael has always been able to work from home as a very successful technology stockmarket analyst and newsletter writer. In 2019, we received IRS non-profit status as a public service cemetery, but had to take a hiatus through the challenges of the Covid Pandemic, as did many non-profits nationwide. In 2020, we worked with an expert fundraising consultant from Portland Oregon, while looking at over 40 parcels that would be less costly and suitable for a conservation/restoration project. In 2025, we are have raised funds for the land and are ready to make an offer.

2015- An idea whose time had come; began research after mom’s cremation
2016 – The search for the right land
2017 – Saw the ad for the land in the Locals paper
2018 – Moved our family to Ashland
2019 – Established the Non-Profit and community interest
2020 – Taught a course at OLLI on Natural Burials as 21st century choice
2021 – Hired a fundraising consultant and established our Board of Directors
Finished the book Restoring America; researched native tree choices and suppliers
2024 – Found backup land parcel; grant-writing; major fundraiser for land acquisition.
2025 Publishing Dr. Cunningham’s book Restoring America (to be published Spring ’25);
Connecting with future community partners.

Let’s serve individuals and families in Oregon and the tri-state area with restoration of the Sanctuary through your donation toward the land and a Celebration of Life Hall for use in 4 seasons! To the extent of non-profit law in Oregon, you can take a tax credit (see below on this webpage or contact us at (541) 500-7611).

In memorium: We honor the ancestors, spirits, and tribal nations who inhabited this land and those Native peoples who continue to inhabit the Rogue Valley, namely the Shasta tribe that likely lived along the creek. Also, we honor the Takelma people who shared peaceful relations around the ancient hot springs in the Ashland area. In particular, we wish to honor the memory of Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim (1924-2019), Takelma tribal leader, a member of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an alliance of women elders who promote caregiving of the earth and awareness of indigenous cultures. She was known to have been a model for many of peace, wisdom, and empathy. Grandmother Aggie, as she was affectionately known, wrote:

“We are the natural nurturers of the Earth… We need to educate that restoration…works.” ~Agnes Baker Pilgrim

Chief Joseph of eastern Oregon spoke in the early 1900s of his own natural death and burial:

“Soon it will be time for me to return (my body) to the Earth. I will always be with my people in spirit to protect this land.”

* * *

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Future partners with: Southern Oregon Land Conservancy (land easement); Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON); and also:

Local and regional schools (especially Outdoor schools and nature programs): Ashland High School – Community service hours and Mentoring program; Thoreau School; Trails; Siskiyou School and Waldorf schools of Rogue Valley; Local chapters of the Anthroposophy Society of America; local civic, environmental, senior and religious groups with an interest in natural burials, including religions and traditions interested in natural burial (including area tribal groups, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and southeast Asian traditions; Pantheism; and other earth-based traditions.)

Native tree update: Based on long term studies from Oregon State University and local experts, we have become educated about the decline of certain pine and evergreen species; our goal now is to restore a native oak grove/oak woodland and eventual forest. This means we won’t be able to plant evergreen trees (with a few possible exceptions) which require twice the amount of rainfall available in our area. The focus will be on native, drought-tolerant trees like Oregon black oak (predominantly) and white oak (for the edges of groves, due to their 40-foot wide canopies), their essential nitrogen-fixing wildflowers, and madrone saplings (only by special request.) The black oaks in particular provide the “cathedral” effect, a term used by regional ecologists for the uplifting experience in looking up into their canopies. For specific references, see “Douglas-fir in Klamath Mountains are in “decline spiral.” OSU Newsroom, 3-20-23, and Jercke et al. Carbon Uptake by Douglas Fir is More Sensitive to Increased Temperature…” Ag and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 329 (Feb.2023).

Cathedral Trees Sanctuary will be one of a dozen certified conservation burial preserves nationwide offering a state-licensed burial with a native tree, qualifying for the Green Burial Council’s strictest category of conservation certification. See https:greenburialcouncil.org Similar non-profit projects that provide native tree plantings as part of a larger dedicated restoration project are Larkspur Preserve in Tennessee (owned by The Nature Conservancy), White Eagle cemetery (eastern WA) and Sacred Family Groves, Arcata, California. The Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary will be one of a very few certified conservation cemeteries that offer a native oak tree planting (or madrone, mountain sequoia, and Oregon sugar pine), creating over time a 500-year old mixed legacy oak forest. The high standard of conservation certification allows biodegradable caskets (available through a few regional funeral homes) or natural cloth shrouds from your home, without embalming or underground vaults, and no headstones, according to GBC standards. Burial sites will be reserved and marked by a copper or small memorial tag at the site, with the name of the tree donor or deceased person and their birth and death years. All plots will be locatable with GPS.

From this:

…to this native Oak grove sanctuary:

The Green Burial Council conservation certification requires a legal easement with an independent organization or land trust (such as the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy) so the preserve is held forever as both a conservation burial preserve and a state-licensed burial ground. The easement is provided to ensure no developments on the land such as condominums, city housing or a golf course, for examples. The Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary have an even higher level of practice – “Restoration Burials” (Dr. Cunningham’s “trademark”)– of soil restoration, meadows and groves that will grow over the centuries into a mature heritage oak woodland with madrone and other compatible tree “family” choices. “Restoration burials” is a term defined by our Board President Dr. Cunningham in her book on natural and restoration burials (see updates for publishing on this website). Through careful ecological management of the groves and meadow with consultants, the land will be held by The Friends of CTS to conserve viewpoints looking south to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and to restore meadows, groves, and watersheds for quiet enjoyment for many, many generations.

Manual and natural management practices are used instead of hazardous herbicidal and pesticide sprays found in conventional cemeteries such as RoundUp, a known cause of lymphoma cancers. Instead of a wasteland of lawn care chemicals and embalming fluids found in conventional cemeteries, our living soil can grow native trees (oaks for over 140 threatened species like butterflies to the Oregon acorn woodpecker), and wildflower meadows. For less than the cost of an average cremation package, a conservation shroud burial allows your body to nourish the soil, while a casketed burial allows for hundreds of pounds of carbon to be sequestered back into the soil with each burial.

Additions of organic soil amendments and biodynamic soil preparations are used to ensure sustainability and longevity of your tree(s) or even a family memorial grove. This long-term project is the only certified conservation/restoration burial ground in the West where a specified native tree(s) can be planted as part of a large-scale restoration, part of an international movement to restore groves and forests that double as “ecologically-sensitive” burial grounds while supporting greater human, ecological, and public health worldwide. For the dozens of environmental and public health benefits, please refer to Dr. Diana Cunningham’s book The New Natural American Way of Deathcare (to be published 2025).

Financial donors may donate the cost for one or more trees, or even an entire Grove of their choice, from $3,000 for one tree to $12,000 for a family of four, or a grove by special request. Donors names will be located on our website and on a plaque at the Sanctuary.

Cathedral Trees Sanctuary will have many environmental benefits and also bring a feeling of peace with Groves representing a variety of environmental organizations, civic groves, religious and spiritual groups (such as the Indigenous Nations Grove, a Jewish Grove, a Unity Community Grove, Buddhist Grove, etc) and groves named for a specific family or individual in memory.

A Founder’s Walk will surround the groves, ending at a Viewpoint at the hilltop where families and others can rest, find solace in the view, and visit a loved one in four seasons:

Photo showing an approximation of a hillside wildflower meadow edged by mixed oak woodland.

A graphic from the Green Burial Council shows the differences between a conventional and natural burial

The natural or conservation burial plot is 3-1/2 feet deep, within the biologically active “living soil” layer, allowing a carefully chosen tree to thrive nearby. A conventional burial is 6 feet below the ground, in the “dead” zone of soil where decomposition cannot happen. Beside a conservation plot, a tree can receive nutrients and grow shallow feeder within the living soil. Any human body-burdens of mercury or heavy metals (now found in all human tissues on autopsy) will naturally percolate down through the soil, avoiding contamination of tree roots when planted with certain soil inoculants.

Conventional vaults impede plant and tree roots and inhibit the natural decomposition of the body that is necessary for soil and grove restoration. In conventional cemeteries vaults are actually only used for ease of lawn mowing. With a conservation burial, a mound over the buried body is made to allow for the natural settling of the body. With each tree planted adjacent to a grave, we will be enlivening the soil with a natural inoculant. Certain other local additives we’ve created will also neutralize mercury and other pollutants in the soil.

Tree roots are significantly increased with soil inoculants (see inoculated tree at right in photo above); all trees will benefit from this sustainable restoration practice. (Photo courtesy M. Applications)

The Groves

Cathedral Trees Sanctuary is an inclusive burial ground dedicated to unity, care, and tolerance of all walks of life, faiths, and philosophies. Throughout the beautiful large acreage there are areas that are suitable for reserved groves, depending on special requests and the ecological needs of the area.

Memorial benches will provide an experience of relaxation and peace in nature. The creek, soil, groves, and ecosystem will all be restored.

Native Tree Choices

At one time, the Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary’s Board of Trustees considered that each individual could choose any tree of their choice, including exotic favorites. However, after extensive research and environmental consultation, we now have a plan for each individual or family to choose a climate-appropriate oak tree variety suitable for the local soil, microclimate, and long-term needs of trees and people.

For each tree planted, a number of factors must be taken into account, including the watershed and rainfall, soil type, and compatibility with other trees, that is, “tree families.” For example, oaks and madrone trees actually support each other in an ancient and masterful underground mycelium network, providing sugars, chemical “messages,” water, and immune support to each other. “Families” of trees will be compatible in this way at our sanctuary, as they are in nature. For inspirational reading, the local library has a copy of The Hidden Life of Trees (illustrated edition) by Dr. Peter Wohlleben, a tree scientist with an ancient beech grove cemetery in Germany. In consultation with state-of-the-art research on tree groupings, the following groups for a Grove will grow very well together:

    Oak family of trees includes a choice of:
Oregon Black Oak (80 ft tall, 30′ wide canopy)
   Oregon White Oak (80 ft. tall, 65′ wide canopy)
   Madrone ( by special request only; 40 ft. tall, 20′ wide canopy)

Founder’s Walk possible Choices – depending on final consultation with our tree ecologist
Oregon Sugar Pine (a rare species that grows naturally in Oregon) and Mountain Sequoia (Sequoia giganteum, an experimental “migrant species” that grows to 300 feet tall, based on consultation with our ecological consultant.)

Depending on the land and its microclimate, the following trees may be considered, given the special needs of each species: Black oak, White oak, Willow (varieties), Madrone, and the two softwood species listed above. In accordance with Green Burial Council conservation cemetery requirements, all trees used must be native to the local climate; that is, hardy enough to be long-lived and survive the extremes of recent weather patterns in the area. A maintenance fund is required by the Green Burial Council for ongoing tree management, replacement and care. Meadow plots will be available for a lower fee. We expect to be offering burials in 2025 or 2026.

How To Make This Happen

We are raising monies for various restoration projects. The Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary (EIN 84-3169866) is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(2) public service organization and donations are tax-deductible. So far, we have an anonymous gift from a generous donor. We are asking the community for donations, and we can assist with tax deductions, annuities and securities questions.

We can offer a couple’s burial for two trees for a $6,000 donation, or up to four trees as a family plot for a discounted $16,000 donation. All donors of $6,000 or more will be recognized as Founding Donors on a plaque at the Sanctuary. Trees will be chosen and planted as a larger restoration project, in the fall and spring, and at the time of need (once we are licensed by the State mortuary board. Once we acquire the license (usually within two months of application) we can then sell specific plots for pre-need and at the time of need for a burial. If you already have a cremation package, we can help you transfer this over to a reservation with the Friends of CTS.

Donations can be made with a:

1. Check to Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary (FOCTS), 1467 Siskiyou Blvd., # 313, Ashland 97520
2. Bank wire to the Friends of CTS account at Rogue Credit Union, Routing #323274775, Account #600-161-0559
3. Contact your brokerage firm or custodian holding your securities and give them our information: Charles Schwabe Firm, DTC #164 (Clearing Code 40), into Account # 7466-3777.

Note: If you have a Required Minimum Distribution from a 401(k) account that normally would be taxable, you can turn that into a tax deduction by donating cash, or securities to the Charles Schwabe account listed above for Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary. We will be glad to talk to your tax adviser or accountant about this.

We will hold tree planting weekends during the spring and autumn planting seasons to plant reserved trees. Wildflower seed planting will take place in the spring with volunteer support. (Google image photos)

Children can learn that death can be a supported experience with their family and is natural for our bodies. (Conservation Burial Alliance photo)

In looking ahead to our own deathcare and death, the grandfather of conservation movement John Muir said:

“Let children {and adults} walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life…and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”

Girl hugging an oak tree (Photo: JMTaylor.com)

Additional information from the Green Burial Council…

Additional educational information is available from https://Conservation Burial Alliance.org, or the Green Burial Council at https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/media_packet.html. Up-to-date medical research from the International Academy of Oral and Medical Toxicology library is available at https://library.iaomt.org/ on the effects of pollutants such as mercury and heavy metals on public health. Other research on the medical consequences of herbicides, embalming fluids, and so on can be found in the GBC website.

Nearly twenty years ago, the Green Burial Council International acquired data from Cornell University professor Mary Woodsen showing the enormous pollution and waste of resources from conventional cemetery practices nationwide:

Each year over 22,000 cemeteries across the U.S. waste:

4.3 million gallons embalming fluid, 827,060 gallons of which is formaldehyde, methanol, benzene. These cause high rates of cancer in workers and destroy the natural ecology of the body. Embalming fluids and other chemicals leach into the watershed, contributing to the slow poisoning of our waterways
20 million board feet of hardwoods, including rainforest trees
1.6 million tons of concrete (enough to re-pave the continent across and back); concrete production also uses the heavy metal mercury in its manufacturing process
17,000 tons of copper and bronze in caskets
64,500 tons of steel (enough to build a new Golden Gate bridge every year)
Caskets and vaults leach heavy metals of iron, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt into the soil

In addition to wastefulness and soil contamination from embalming fluids:

Herbicides used for cemetery lawn care kill the very microbes found in nature that are essential to transform the deceased into new life. 800 million gallons of RoundUp herbicide and pesticides – or “biocides,” to use a term from Rachel Carson, the mother of American environmentalism – are used every year in cemeteries across America. The once-living soil in cemeteries is now essentially void of any capacity to sustain long-term, healthy plant life.

Synthetic fertilizers only allow the growth of cemetery grass to create a green lawn effect and cause excess synthetic nitrogen to leach into the surrounding soil and local watershed. Although some older or historic cemeteries have trees that are healthy and have reached maturity with deep roots, those trees planted in cemeteries within the past 80-100 years will have a limited lifespan and health problems to contend with.

Financial Savings: There are enormous financial savings with conservation burials. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, conventional cemeteries and funeral homes increased their prices to an average of $15,000 per funeral, from about $8,000 prior to 2020. Surveys of Americans in 2021 showed that 56% of families were unable to pay for funeral or burial costs and had used up their savings during the pandemic.

In contrast to conventional burials and funerals, conservation burials typically cost an average of $3,000. A meadow burial can cost as little as $1,000 (not including a sewn or purchased biodegradable shroud). Payment arrangements can be made for those under the poverty level.

Cremation remains burials: A number of people have asked if Cathedral Trees Sanctuary can bury the cremated remains of other family members that have been given to them. Conservation certification allows this on a limited basis only, because of the over-alkaline effect on the soil from the cremains. See the report of the Green Burial Council, “The Environmental Impact and Potential Human Health Effects of Cremation”.

However, on a very limited basis, Cathedral Trees Sanctuary can offer a covering of soil over the cremains on top of mounded soil at the base of a purchased tree, along with cremains soil acidifiers and conditioners. Since cremains have no heavy metals other than traces of lead in some areas of the country, we expect that there will be minimal impact on tree growth and soil fertility. For more information about the environmental and health impacts of cremation, see below. Please contact us for specific needs and costs for cremation-remains.

Cremation, mistakenly thought by many Americans to be “green” (and avoided by Baha’is and numerous other religious groups) is even more polluting than conventional cemeteries. Cremation:

Uses fossil fuels to reach & maintain 1900° to 2400° F for 2+ hours, or 92 cubic meters of natural gas for each cremation. The pandemic of 2020 brought cremation numbers up to about 2 million Americans. 92 cubic meters gas x 2,000,000 cremations = 184 million cubic meters of natural gas per year used in U.S. cremations.

Releases 0.8 to 5.9 grams of mercury per cremation into global air and water (Britain study estimated cremations cause 16% of their total greenhouse gas emissions; MN study estimates 14% of U.S. greenhouse gases).

Produces 139 lbs. Of CO₂ per person = 1.74 billion pounds of CO₂ emissions annually in the U.S.

Of the 1.4 million and 1.3 million deceased who underwent cremation and conventional burial, respectively, in the USA in 2017, 55 million pounds of carbon were lost to the air and conventional cemetery practices, causing a huge loss of our carbon for many future generations.

Crematory emissions include significantly toxic levels of mercury, dioxins, furans, plastics and other persistent organic pollutants (POPS). Once mercury is breathed in, it bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in human and mammal bodies and is difficult to eliminate, according to medical researchers and biologists of the past forty years.

An EPA Report (2021) showed mercury was the most dangerous of “the dirty dozen” pollutants released in cremation vapors, including plastics (body bags), dioxins (wood caskets), furans, PCBs, and persistent organic pollutants.

To date, over 30,000 freshwater lakes have been closed by the US Geological Service due to mercury contamination. It takes only 20 grams of mercury to close a lake or pond and make it unusable. References can be found in the archives at the USGS.

According to Professor emeritus Boyd Haley, PhD, of the International Academy of Oral and Medical Toxicology, our mercury body burdens are increasing by 3% every year. As an NIH US government scientist, he produced 30 years of studies showing that mercury is one of 3 causes of Alzheimer’s disease. Other diseases linked with the neurotoxin are MS, Parkinson’s, ALS, learning disabilities, and certain types of autism. Mercury poisoing is also caused from eating contaminated fish (see “Big Fish, Little Fish; Youtube video) and inhaling crematory industry vapors (everyone globally). References to these can be found in the Archives for the NIH, the EPA, and at https://library.iaomt.org/