August 2025
- Bailey McLaughlin
- Sep 1
- 6 min read
Our practice of Natural Burial
From the time that Vermont Forest Cemetery has been open, we have provided a unique experience of natural burial which not only benefits the environment but helps mourners through the healing process. The response from families who have buried loved ones with us has been overwhelmingly positive and we believe our focus on the participatory model for natural burial has been key to this success.
Our Founder, Michelle Hogle Acciavatti, has played a special role in normalizing grieving and the importance of direct participation in the burial process as a way of facilitating the healing process, and how important this additional role is to the support that our Cemeterian Bailey McLaughlin provides to mourners as they prepare for burial.
Price Increase
To reflect the full scale of support that we provide mourners and the fact that our costs have not increased since we opened and set our prices two years ago, we find that it will be necessary going forward to increase our base cost for burial rights from $2,470 to $2,720. The new price has been announced on our website and price list has been effective as of 8/15/2025 and will apply to all orders that are placed after that date.
Policy on Cremains
We also wish to clarify our policy on cremation. This has been a topic which we have been trying to find a balance between the needs of mourners and the needs of the forest over the past two years. In the end we decided soon after opening that we needed to restrict interment of cremains to very special and specific cases. Specifically, we limit interment of cremains to three circumstances:
1) The cremains of a predeceased loved one (e.g. a spouse or child who died and was cremated earlier or a reasonable number of pet cremains) are being buried along with the body of a person who has purchased burial rights for a natural burial.
2) There are unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the time of death (e.g. a person who has prepurchased burial rights dies and dies internationally).
3) The remains were cremated because the person donated their body to medical research.
If you are planning on being cremated and wish to have your remains buried in a forest setting, we encourage you to check out Life Forest in Hillsborough, New Hampshire which offers people the opportunity to bury ashes in a conservation setting as well as plant a memorial tree of their choosing to honor their loved ones.
Documentary Screenings
We’re excited to bring the award-winning documentary, From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America to the Middlebury Town Hall Theater on September 24 at 6pm! This new space is absolutely beautiful and can hold around 100 visitors. We hope to pack the house! Our Founder and Head Cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti will be leading the Q&A after the screening along with president of the board Jim Hogle. You can also find us at:
The First Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington Saturday September 28 at 12pm as part of their very successful series on dying and death care.
The Charlotte Senior Center on October 1st at 1pm
The Waterford Public Library on October 9th at 6:30pm
The Big Picture Theater in Waitsfield on October 16th at 5pm
We are currently working on scheduling showings for this winter. If you would like to have a showing of the documentary in your town or area please contact Jim Hogle at info@cemetery.eco
Tours
If you haven’t yet visited the cemetery you should sign up for one of our regularly scheduled tours. These tours are led by people who know natural burial and the cemetery well and are a great introduction to the Vermont Forest Cemetery and what it offers. Tours will continue to be scheduled twice a month through November, then we will take a break for the winter and start again in May 2026. For a complete schedule click here. If you have a group of 5 or more people, or if there is an urgent need we will be happy to organize a special tour. Please contact Bailey McLaughlin at bailey@cemetery.eco .
Although we recommend that your first visit take advantage of the insights provided by our scheduled tours you are also welcome to visit the cemetery at any time on your own. The cemetery is open from dawn until dusk every day.
Mark your calendars for two very special events!
The Vermont Forest Cemetery is holding two exciting and very special events this fall!
We are celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of our opening on October 11 from 11am-4pm. There will be guided tours, poetry, art, displays from local artisans who make caskets, burial trays, backboards and shrouds, dirt camp for adults (a reprise of our very successful dirt camp for middle school and high school aged children from this summer), walks in our newly completed labyrinth, and music featuring a performance by the Sky Blue Boys with Banjo Dan and Willy Lindner from 3:00 - 3:45. Please join us to help celebrate two years of serving the community and allow us to thank you for making it all possible.
We are joining Junction Art & Music to sponsor a major event The Art of Natural Burial: Ecology, Reciprocity, and Care at their great venue in White River Junction on October 26th from 10AM-4:45PM. The event will include showings of the documentary From Earth to Earth, workshops on natural burial and end of life issues, with an emphasis on challenges faced by marginalized communities, and displays from vendors who provide support for natural burial. Michelle and other members of the Vermont Forest Cemetery board will be there for small group and one-on-one conversations.
A Note from our Cemeterian
Many of you have met me at screenings and tours. You’ve seen my graphic design on flyers and Instagram posts and more often than not we have probably shoveled dirt together shoulder to shoulder at a burial in the summer heat or bundled up in the fall. I get asked frequently, “How did you get started in this?” and each time I get to delightfully answer, “Funeral camping!”
I would like to start by painting you a picture. It's a hot and muggy day in Central Florida. I've just walked home from the bus stop, sweat dripping down my back, and rounded the corner to see a beat up RV parked in front of our house. My family doesn't own an RV. My father was rushing in and out, the entire frame of the RV bouncing as he tossed in suitcases. When he noticed I'd made it home he paused, eyes softening. He said the words so many of us have heard. "“Sweetheart, I have something to tell you." My great grandmother had passed away in Arkansas and the family wanted to have her funeral swiftly. There were no flights that would get us there in time and my parents accidentally began the most strange family tradition I've come across yet - funeral camping.
I wish I could say this was the last time my family would travel to a funeral squished into a tiny RV, driving through the night and talking in hushed tones, but it ended up being one of many. We inevitably would find ourselves staying in a state park nearby and we unintentionally became a hub for grieving family members who needed an escape. We would sit around a campfire, making s'mores and sharing memories about our loved ones with the forest as our soundtrack. On our third funeral camping trip I so vividly remember walking on one of the forest trails, fully dressed in my best church attire, heels sinking into the soft earth and remember wondering, "Why do funerals have to be this way? Why can’t we stay here in the forest?".
My understanding of death rituals has never been the same since. While I didn’t know it then, deep in grief amongst trees, these experiences forever changed my views of what processing a loved ones death could be. My family and I laugh together now, about how the unconventionality of choices they made in the midst of grief laid the groundwork for what I would be doing today. But it was one of their greatest gifts that I am grateful for beyond measure.
Those of us who work at the Vermont Forest Cemetery are committed to providing the best possible service to our community, and encourage you to contact us at any time with questions, concerns or ideas at info@cemetery.eco.
We value your continued support and are deeply indebted to those of you who have volunteered to help build trails, participate in burials, or just bear witness for those experiencing loss; for those who chose to make tax deductible donations, and to those who have chosen to support us through advanced purchases of burial rights. Thank you for your continued support!
Once spring arrives we hope to see many of you at the cemetery. It is a beautiful place in all seasons, made all the more beautiful by the stories it holds.
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