Woodland Cemetery
Green cemeteries are gaining popularity as more people seek end-of-life options that reflect their environmental values. Unlike traditional burial grounds that rely on embalming chemicals, concrete vaults, and resource-intensive landscaping, green cemeteries prioritize natural decomposition and habitat preservation. Graves are marked with simple stones, native plants, or GPS coordinates, allowing the landscape to remain wild and ecologically vibrant. For many, these spaces offer a sense of peace and purpose—an opportunity to leave a lighter footprint and contribute to the renewal of the land. As awareness of sustainability grows, green cemeteries have become an appealing choice for those who want their final act to support environmental stewardship.
Building on this movement, we recently completed the planning and installation of a new green cemetery section as an extension of an existing traditional cemetery. Out of respect for our client, we are not sharing the location or name of the organization involved.
Our work began with a comprehensive ecological inventory, through which we documented sensitive plant and wildlife communities and identified key “mother trees,” particularly native oaks—foundation species throughout the Taconic region. We also noted the strong presence of spicebush, an essential understory shrub that supports the spicebush swallowtail butterfly. Native oaks, meanwhile, sustain hundreds of moth and butterfly species, including luna and polyphemus moths, along with countless specialist caterpillars that underpin local food webs. Together, these species support critical pollinators such as specialist Andrena bees that rely on oak pollen, and early-emerging bees and flies that feed on spicebush’s spring blooms.
Guided by this ecological data, we aligned trails to maintain slopes under 3% and to avoid disrupting high-value habitat—especially mature oak groves and thriving spicebush thickets. We then located 30 burial sites within areas dominated by invasive species, intentionally placing new burials where they could catalyze ecological recovery. In this way, burial becomes an act of restoration, allowing families to play a direct role in healing the land.
Our approach also draws on lead designer Bryan Quinn’s experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi. While working with Tumbuka communities in the northern region, Bryan observed that some of the best remaining primary forest exists on burial grounds. Among the Tumbuka, these places hold deep ancestral and spiritual significance, and clearing or denuding them is understood as a profound violation of obligations to both ancestors and land. As a result, these burial landscapes are carefully protected as sacred groves where cultural reverence and ecological stewardship are inseparable.
This insight reflects a broader anthropological pattern: across many cultures, sacred burial landscapes serve as reservoirs of biodiversity. Although the motivations differ—Tumbuka sacred groves arise from long-standing ancestral traditions, while U.S. green burial practices stem from contemporary ecological ethics—the shared principle is a deep respect for land as a place of memory, continuity, and renewal. These perspectives reinforce our belief that burial landscapes can be powerful sites of ecological protection and cultural meaning.
By integrating the green burial grounds seamlessly into the existing landscape, we created a space that is serene, regenerative, and ecologically alive—supporting the pollinators, plants, and wildlife that define the Taconic region’s natural heritage, while honoring time-honored human traditions of caring for both people and the land.