WRITING BYLAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS
  • (See Natural Burial Bylaw Language)
  • ​Suggest that the rules be separated from conventional rules but in the same document
  • Use sample bylaws to help make your decisions about what you will and won’t allow

What can go and can’t go in the ground?
  • Vault (including butterdishing) (no)
  • Metal or exotic hardwood caskets (no)
  • Dual stacked burials (no)
  • Biodegradable container (yes)
  • Shrouding board (maybe)
  • Mementos (maybe)
  • Cremated remains with full body co-burials (maybe)
  • Embalmed body (maybe)

What markers will be allowed?
  • Engraved native stone markers
  • Standard flat markers
  • Corner stones
  • Modest gravestones
  • Art pieces and installations, stone fences and walls
  • Consider replacing concrete bases with small stone or eliminating them for flat markers entirely
 
What flowers, shrubs, flags, insignia, other will be allowed? (See Natural Burial Bylaw Language)
  • No plastic or metals, invasive or non-native plants 
  • Create a planting plan that goes with an ecological assessment and/ or integrated pest management plan; manage all plantings and their maintenance in the cemetery rather than allowing families to plant
  • Consider planting wildflower or perennial gardens with native plantings or non-invasive plants to sell to families to plant on graves or partner with nurseries in your area to provide families with a list of acceptable plants
 
What are the rules for disinterment?
  • Next-of-kin should be informed prior to finalizing arrangements that green burials may not be disinterred without a state order; procure a signed waiver
  • Include the restriction in bylaws 

LOCATION
Where might you locate green burial grave spaces in your town cemetery?
  • Between existing graves
  • In marginal use areas, places difficult to access with heavy machinery
  • In historic spaces in unused portions
  • In its own area, either adjacent to the existing cemetery or in a separate location designated as a natural burial preserve with separate bylaws and maintenance
  • Grave location: Burial will be as near the platted grave as possible but flexibility may be required if heavy equipment is not used. Some cemeteries sell the right to burial rather than real estate, but there is no reason to change your current system.

MAINTENANCE
How may these spaces be sized and maintained?
  • (See Opening, Closing, and Maintenance of a Green Burial Grave)
  • Graves may be the same size and proximity as conventional graves, or located in other patterns depending on the location (marginal spaces, wood line, meadow, etc.)
  • Mowed grass same as conventional lawn cemetery
  • Wildflower garden
  • Native plantings left to populate with minimal intervention
  • No intervention other than safety measures such as removal of blowdown or necessary pest management
 
How is the grave prepared?
  • Unless the soil is exceedingly clay or rocky, no amendments are needed; sandy and loamy soil is best
  • Soil strata is best kept separate for return in order, but not essential
  • Width may be determined by the container being used; ask for dimensions
  • Hydraulic lowering is still acceptable if you choose, and the grave size will have to be standard instead of customized.
  • Hand dig or use light machinery to 3.5 to 4 feet
  • Dig a reservoir at the foot to collect any water
  • Loosely place pine boughs or other natural material to line the grave bottom to soften the look and create an oxygen trap to aid in decomposition 
  • Lay wide planks on the sides of the grave for stability in lowering
  • If hand lowering, three or four 1 x 4 rails are placed across the open grave with ropes laid across them and excess rope coiled on either side, and the casket or shrouding board is placed on them
  • The body is lowered by mourners grasping the rope ends and lifting together while the 1 x 4s are removed before lowering.
  • If there is a shrouding board that must be removed, someone will have to reach in for it, gently tipping and sliding.
  • Be sure to have child-sized as well as adult shovels available for mourners who wish to back fill the grave.
 
How can grave subsidence be avoided?
  • Burial at 3.5 – 4 feet reduces the chance of subsidence dramatically
  • Use a preform digging template with built-in or detachable platforms on the sides
  • Use wide-plank boards at the sides of the grave where people lowering will be standing
 
How can grave cave be managed?
  • The grave can have displaced soil mounded on top; will settle within two months
  • Pine boughs laid over the top prevent erosion, assist in settling
  • Level top and bring back soil periodically over time until settling is complete

What additional protocols to what you already have in place are needed to assure worker safety?
  • Hand digging and use of lighter machinery
  • What workers are responsible for and what they are not, and systems for handling various scenarios in written Standards of Operation
  • Maintenance that is different from current practices
 
How can winter burial be managed?
  • Wood fires that produce coals
  • Grave warmers
  • Curing or solar blankets
  • Open graves with unfinished compost
  • Overwinter in a mausoleum or other cold storage facility

​ What about partnering with the local conservation commission or land trust entity?
  • Review Dr. Billy Campbell's Best Practices for tips
  • Read about the relationship between green burial and conservation entities in Conservation Burial Easement Language
  • Managing boundary monitoring and assisting with signage and trail maintenance can be shared with your conservation commission; may offer nature classes, use of trails, other activities to bring in revenue and prompt donations
  • Local land trusts have clear best practices; plus acreage and identifiable protection species standards that may preclude partnership, but an amiable relationship is worth cultivating

What is different about our cemetery operator’s job?
  • Personal oversight of some of the paperwork
  • Meeting families and/or funeral directors at the entrance
  • Accompanying the participants to the grave and assisting in logistics (pulling the boards, guiding those lowering, until everyone knows how)
  • May need to do more direct community outreach
  • May have people wanting to financially support the natural area so a system to accept and acknowledge donations may need to be developed
 
DEALING WITH THE PUBLIC
What may guests wish to do during the funeral?
  • Invite clergy—or perform the ceremony themselves
  • Hire a funeral director to assist with logistics—or conduct the funeral themselves
  • Carry the casket or shroud to the grave
  • Expect a transport (cart, wagon, golf cart, other nonmotorized vehicle, burrows or horses, etc.) Cemeteries usually have some form of transportation available and at least some handicap accessible trails.
  • Lower the body into the grave
  • Blanket with pine boughs or flowers and mementos
  • Backfill the grave, taking turns shoveling
  • Decorate the mound
  • Place the marker
 
How will the cemetery communicate the public safety and what to expect rules to the public and to related professionals?
How can the town avoid being sued when something goes wrong?
  • ​Waiver for the next-of-kin that states the release of liability for anything that happens the property (See Sample Liability Waiver)
  • Have a guestbook for the purpose of seeing what traffic is and where people might be going in case they go missing; include a liability waiver statement at the top of each page
  • Assess whether your area qualifies under the NH Liability Law that protects visitors to natural or recreational areas (R.S.A. Sec. 508:14 and Sec. 212:34)
 
 How can we let our community know what their options are?
  • Float the NH Green Burial Survey
  • ​Create a town website page info with links to organizations, forms, and a video of the property
  • Make an announcement at the annual Town Meeting
  • Give a public presentation about green burial with Q&A of trustees
  • Have rules and regs, visitor guidebooks at the Town Hall for pick up
  • Ask medical facilities, senior centers, churches, and schools to display rack cards
  • Trustees speak to civic and religious groups, clubs, and other social groups
 
CREMATED REMAINS
Where may cremated remains be buried?
  • Co-burials of cremated remains with full body burial may be allowed or not
  • Cremated remains need significant amending and time before burial to be neutralized for soil; Let Your Love Grow works, burial in wool and protection for roots is best
  • Burial of cremated remains in green space is preferable to no disposition or scattering on fragile roots and foliage as long as it is mitigated beforehand. (See More about burying cremated remains here.)
  • Burial of cremated remains in dedicated green space that is not ideal for full body burial is acceptable

PRICING
How pricing might and might not change
  • Unless you are organizing the green burial space separately from the existing cemetery and are treating the space as conserved land, there is no reason to have a different price than what you are charging for a plot now. Real estate is real estate—it's what the market will bear.
  • Keep in mind that one of the goals of green burial is to increase physical and financial access for all
  • Better access to green burial will result in increased rates of cremation conversion
  • Some factors that justify adding a modest fee:
    • Opening and closing fees, depending on the amount of time it takes to hand dig or use lighter machinery. If you’re using volunteers, this doesn’t apply.
    • Adding soil as graves settle and plantings mature, but very modestly.
    • Conservation fees may be added to plot prices that go directly to the land trust or conservation entity that has oversight of the property if one is involved.
 
Go to NHfuneral.org>Resources>Writings and Forms to read more: