GREEN CEMETERY GROWTH

Options for ‘green’ burials grow in Chesapeake region

by Whitney Pipkin, Bay Journal

As a recently retired surgeon, Howard Berg has always had an uneasy relationship with death. But the four-year process of opening a cemetery at the end of 2022 — Maryland’s first certified natural cemetery — on land that’s been in his family for decades has made him far more comfortable with the subject.

“Your last act on Earth is to go back to the earth — dust to dust,” Berg said. “To me, rather than impact the environment, why not improve the environment?”

Berg didn’t initially decide to open Serenity Ridge Natural Burial Cemetery and Arboretum, located in Baltimore County, MD, for such lofty reasons. He and his two brothers were looking for the best use of former farmland with forested edges that they had inherited in an area with options limited by zoning. After visiting a natural cemetery FINISH READING HERE

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