August 2026
- Bailey McLaughlin
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
The height of summer is slowly beginning to fade (as are the dreaded deerflies) along with the evening light. We are grateful for the break in heat and as we look towards fall we can’t help but feel the excitement of all the events and offerings on the horizon. This month's newsletter is a packed one!
In this newsletter you’ll find:
3rd Anniversary Celebration
The Music The Forest Holds Concert
Upcoming Events
An Update for our Cottage for Connection
What is Human Composting?
What Does “Natural Burial” Mean?
Our Forest Stewardship Plan
3rd Anniversary Celebration
Mark your calendars! On Saturday October 10th from 11am - 4pm we will be hosting our 3rd Anniversary Celebration. We will have tours, Adult Dirt Camp, artisan vendors, musicians and more. Stay for an hour or for the afternoon in community with natural burial advocates, citizen scientists, artists, and deathworkers. Parking is limited so RSVPing in advance will help us tremendously in our planning.
Would you like to volunteer at our Anniversary Celebration? We are seeking volunteers to set up on Friday October 9th to help us with setting up chairs, tents and decorations. Additionally, we will need volunteers on the day of the event, Saturday October 10th, to assist with parking as well as greeting and directing guests.
The Music The Forest Holds
Join us on Sunday September 27th from 2pm - 4pm for The Music The Forest Holds, our first concert of 2026! Come listen to an acoustic set with local musicians Allison Mann and Colin McCaffrey. Following the concert there will be a Founder’s Tour with Michelle Hogle Acciavatti!
Upcoming Events
Come see the award winning documentary From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America on Saturday September 12th from 1pm - 3pm at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. Following the documentary there will be a Q&A with founder and head cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti and President of the Board Jim Hogle. Have all your natural burial questions answered and meet fellow natural burial advocates in the St. Johnsbury community.
Our next Cemeterian Tour will take place on Saturday September 12th from 10am - 11:30am. Walk with cemeterian Bailey McLaughlin for a ninety minute tour through the grounds of the cemetery. You’ll learn about the ecology of the forest and our conservation goals, stories of those residing in the cemetery and have all of your natural burial questions answered.
A huge thank you to our stellar crew of volunteers who helped us tackle a knotweed patch within the cemetery this August. Our next Cemetery Stewardship Day will be Sunday September 13th from 10am - 2pm and we’ll be focusing on refinishing trails in the sheepfold and along the serviceberry trail. We also hope to do some upkeep around the mound!
The Unitarian Church of Montpelier's Women’s Alliance welcomes our founder and head cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti as their September guest speaker. Join us on Tuesday September 15th from 6:15pm - 7:15pm to view the documentary From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America and ask questions.
RSVPs are necessary.
Our next Founder’s Tour will take place on Saturday September 19th from 2:00pm - 4:00pm. Come meet founder and head cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti for a two hour tour focusing on the stories of the forest and the vision of the cemetery all while answering your questions about VFC!
An Update for our Cottage for Connection
The Cottage for Connection was delivered in late July and has settled in beautifully across from the labyrinth.
We want to say a deep and heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to make this dream a reality. We are so lucky to have such an incredible community who believes in our mission and vision of creating a cemetery that is not just for the dead but for the living. We look forward to welcoming you all inside on October 10th during our 3rd Anniversary!
What is Human Composting?
You may have heard recently in the news about another form of natural deathcare called Human Composting, Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) or terramation.
But what is it exactly?
NOR is the process of using proprietary materials and microbes to accelerate decomposition under artificial conditions inside a temperature- and moisture-controlled vessel to transform the human body into soil. After thirty days, bones are removed and ground up, and humus is returned to families for disposition.
This requires dedicated facilities to manage the composting process and is limited by the number of vessels available at any given time. While NOR has a lower carbon footprint compared to cremation or aquamation, it still requires the use of electricity to power the vessels for the thirty-day time period. This can be an excellent option for larger cities where there is not adequate land for natural burials but which still want to offer an environmentally friendly option to their communities. However, NOR doesn’t have the added benefit of conserving forested landscapes.
At this time, we will not accept composted remains at Vermont Forest Cemetery.
Why?
There are 4 reasons:
We have not been given an answer as to what the proprietary materials used to accelerate decomposition are and we can’t risk contaminating our soils.
There is no research to show that the active biological material in human body—such as bacteria, chemotherapy drugs, antidepressants, hormones—break down in 30 days which would be necessary to make the resulting humus safe for the ecosystem.
The amount of material created by human composting is more than one cubic yard. This is a truck bed full of humus which weighs 1,000lbs and would require a very large hole that would cause damage in the forest to dig.
Natural burial is widely available in a variety of settings in Vermont, making composting an unnecessary option. To learn more check out the Recompose FAQs by clicking here.
What Does “Natural Burial” Mean?
A growing number of cemeteries, in Vermont and elsewhere, are offering “green burial.” Recently, a new cemetery in Windham County announced that they will be opening as a “conservation cemetery.” Vermont Forest Cemetery is the first burial ground in Vermont to be focused on what we call natural burial. Folks are, understandably, often confused about these mostly-unfamiliar terms, so we thought we would try our hands at a simple explanation.
First off: no law or government agency regulates what a cemetery calls itself, so there is some ambiguity in what qualifies as a “green” burial. Like “green” in general, this is a blanket term that covers a lot of practices, some more eco-friendly than others. Some “green cemeteries” allow embalming. Most do not use concrete vaults, while some do but invert them. In Vermont, all “green burial” cemeteries are what is called "hybrid” cemeteries, which have some sections that use these practices and some sections that use conventional burial practices such as vaults and allow burial of embalmed and cremated remains.
The first conservation burial ground has recently announced its opening in Williamsville. This means they have gone through a process of certification through the Green Burial Council, agree to follow general best burial practices established by the GBC that are not site specific, they have a conservation easement, and they do not permit embalming and concrete vaults, and use only biodegradable materials.
Vermont Forest Cemetery identifies as a natural burial ground. Certification as a conservation cemetery would have required that the cemetery have a conservation easement held by a recognized land trust. In Vermont, the rules of land trusts prohibit any disturbance of the soil, and thus cemeteries cannot be held in trust, only the land around them can be. Because all 56.7 acres of VFC is designated as a cemetery, land trusts will not create a conservation easement on the land. The certification process would also have entailed an expense we did not want to pass onto our graveholders.
While we follow the best practices outlined by the GBC and other natural burial cemeteries, we are working with local soil scientists, ecologists and wildlife biologists to develop the best burial practices for our specific ecosystem that take our relationship with the forest into account.
At Vermont Forest Cemetery we are focused on the needs of the mourner as well as the needs of the land.
The four questions that drive our practices are:
What is the relationship of burial to the natural world?
What is the relationship of the body to the natural world?
What is the relationship of the mourner to the natural world?
What is the relationship of the visitor to the natural world?
To learn more, join us on a tour or a work day Sunday September 13th from 10am - 2pm!
Our Forest Stewardship Strategy
Once land is designated as a cemetery it is a cemetery in perpetuity. This gives us the opportunity not to create a forest stewardship plan for five or ten years into the future but a hundred. Our strategy is a three pronged approach:
Intentional, Sequential Active Land Management : There is a common misconception that an untouched forest is a healthy forest and that we should leave nature to return to balance without human interference. In choosing inaction as a stewardship strategy we would be doing a great disservice to not only the land but to our natural communities. Through active land management we can tackle the growth of invasive species, mitigate and prevent soil erosion, monitor the health of our most vulnerable populations and lay the ground work for the ultimate goal of Vermont Forest Cemetery achieving the status of an Old Growth Forest.
Observing Our Impact on Natural Communities, Adapting Our Plans to Minimize Disruption and Reintroduce Vermont Native Species : To care for the land, we have to know the land and all who inhabit it. We track our animal populations to preserve “animal highways” or animal crossings within the forest and create trails with these pathways in mind. Our presence shapes the forest and we are responsible for noticing its response, learning from it and making decisions to support its overall health and growth. We are also afforded a unique opportunity to reintroduce rare species native to Vermont where they will be protected as they become re-established.
Prepare the Forest for Resiliency Through Climate Change : The effects of climate change and rising temperatures in Vermont cannot be overstated. It is our responsibility as stewards of the land to begin planning for the future and health of the forest from soil to tree top. This includes reaching out to state biologist and forestry experts to follow the best practices available that are scientifically backed by the brightest minds in the environmental field. This includes reintroducing hemlock into our Norway spruce grove.
We are currently working on a Forest Stewardship Plan that will be available to the public in the coming months which will outline in detail all of our goals. In addition, we will be providing updates as we complete our plan and amend it as needed. If you have any questions about our stewardship strategy or developing Forest Stewardship Plan, please contact Bailey McLaughlin at bailey@cemetery.eco.
Those of us who work at 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!
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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