“The natural burial movement began in 1993 in a municipal cemetery in the City of Carlisle in the United Kingdom (Clayden and Dixon, 2007). Ken West, then head of bereavement services, had a vision to transform a small area of rough grassland at the edge of the cemetery into native oak woodland by offering bereaved families the option to eschew the traditional headstone and instead plant an oak tree on the grave. Nature would be the focus of this new cemetery landscape rather than the preservation of individual graves and identities of the deceased. In making this provision, West instigated a revolution in UK burial culture that had not been seen since the introduction of cremation in the early part of the 20th Century (Jalland, 1999, Rugg, 2006).”
From “Cutting the lawn − Natural burial and its contribution to the delivery of ecosystem services in urban cemeteries” by Andy Clayden, Trish Green, Jenny Hockey, Mark Powell
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening Volume 33, June 2018, Pages 99-106
