I visited a unique site in Westminster, South Carolina the other day: a sustainable, "green" cemetery. The Ramsey Creek Preserve is a beautiful series of trails in the woods that lead to the rocky creek. Scattered along the trail are the memorials and resting places of people who have decided to be buried in a natural manner, without embalming processes and in biodegradable caskets. The overall feeling is of a nature park, and the memorials are placed in such a way that they do not interrupt the flow of the paths. This is apparently the first such cemetery in the United States, according to Dr. Campbell, the physician who owns the land and oversees the preserve. There are also specific areas set aside for both Muslims and Jews, to encompass their burial requirements. Bodies are buried three and a half feet deep, rather than the traditional six feet, and a mound of earth is created over the area, along with a stone marker. Native plants are relocated from the paths to the mounds periodically, in order to delineate the walking trails without destroying the native vegetation growing there.
