NEWS
Green burials sites are breaking ground in British Columbia
Penticton Lakeview Cemetery
Len Robson, Public Works Manager at the City of Penticton confirmed that they have included a “green burial” section in their most recent upgrades and expansion of the Lakeview Cemetery. Mr Robson says they hope to have all of the bylaw changes in place and the section open to the public early in 2018.
Green Burial in Cache Creek
The Village of Cache Creek Municipal Cemetery is located at 1290 Stage Road. Current interment options include traditional burials for both human and cremated remains, a columbarium, scattering garden as well as an environmentally conscious green burial section.
Creston Forest Lawn Cemetery
August 2017 Creston and the surrounding RDCK rural areas are striving to operate a sustainable cemetery system, while increasing options for interments and enhancing the Cemetery’s landscape and amenities. A Development Plan was prepared by Lees and Associates. This Plan recommends seven new “principal elements” to prioritize at Forest Lawn Cemetery:
1. Upgraded Main Entrance
2. Memorial Walk
3. Green Burial Areas (Phased)
4. Gathering Space
5. Future Cremation Garden
6. Expanded Burial Area
7. Scattering Area
Denman Island Natural Burial Cemetery
Denman Island Natural Burial Cemetery is the first contemporary cemetery in Canada that is
exclusively green. Providing services related to the burial of human and cremated remains and the scattering of cremated remains, while following the principles of natural burial.
Powell River Regional Cemetery
A simpler version of green burial is offered in Powell River
where bodies can be buried in a field at Powell River Regional Cemetery. Individual graves are not marked, but a plaque with a loved one’s name is placed at the entrance to the meadow.
“After decades of denying our mortality, Americans are starting to accept, if not embrace, this fundamental fact of biology: that the natural end of all life is decomposition and decay. Instead of fighting it at almost all cost as we have for the better part of the last century — with toxic chemicals, bulletproof metal caskets, and the concrete bunker that is the burial vault, all of which will only delay, not halt, the inevitable — we’re finally seeing the wisdom of allowing Mother Nature to run her natural course.” 2
1. Mark Harris, Grave Matters: A Journey through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial (New York: Scribner, 2007), 186.