I’VE HEARD ABOUT GREEN BURIAL, WHAT IS IT ? Green burial is a form of simple interment where the body is returned to the earth to decompose naturally and contribute to new life.  Human remains are prepared for green burial without embalming and are buried in a shroud or fully biodegradable casket or alternative container.  No form of wood or concrete grave liner is used for green burial and individual markers are not permitted at graves.

WHY ARE PEOPLE ASKING FOR GREEN BURIAL ?  Green burial is regarded as a statement of personal values for those who live their lives seeking to minimize their impact on the local and global environment.   Green burial is seen as the last environmentally sensitive act a person can perform.

IS IT AVAILABLE ON VANCOUVER ISLAND?  The only place on Vancouver Island, in fact Canada, where green burial is available in an urban setting is the Woodlands section of Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich.  The Burial Park has been offering green burial since 2008 and is currently the only cemetery in Canada certified as a Natural Burial Provider by the Green Burial Council of N.A.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE BURIAL IS COMPLETE ?  Approved plants and trees – indigenous to our local environment – are planted on each gravesite.  These plantings, coupled with the overall restoration and reforestation of the Woodlands ecosystem are collectively intended to be a living memorial to the persons interred there.   As trees and plants mature and become established visitors are discouraged from visiting individual graves as this will have a negative impact on the eco-system developing in the Woodland areas.  Visitors, although eventually not able to visit specific graves, will have access to the site through specially established memorial zones for reflection and remembrance. 

IF I CAN’T HAVE A MARKER ON THE GRAVE IS THERE AN ALTERNATE FOR OF MEMORIAL?  Some green burial sites in England don’t permit any form of memorial.   At Royal Oak Burial Park it was decided there should be a compromise between no memorials at all and individual markers at each grave.  That is how they came to install 6 communal memorial stones for the purpose of making simple memorial inscriptions to commemorate Woodlands burials.  When the green burial site is fully used and all the plants and trees mature the only access to the site will be via a walking path through the site that connects each of the 6 communal boulders.

CAN THE CEMETERY REUSE THE GREEN BURIAL SITE IN THE FUTURE ? One of the key purposes of green burial is to enhance and restore an eco-system to a natural state.  The Woodlands interment zones are a place where individual graves become part of the local, natural landscape and contribute to the environmental sustainability of the larger, community eco-system.  The Burial Park is committed to ensure that every Woodlands natural burial interment zone at the Burial Park - and the natural setting and eco-systems of the Woodlands and the interment sites located therein – are protected in perpetuity and so they cannot at any future date be converted to or reused as a conventional interment area.