Future sustainability of natural burial sites

Much thought and some concern occurs when considering the planning and long term visions of how independent natural burial sites will not only look but support themselves once all plots are sold and the sites becomes full.

Historically most sites have envisaged their grounds passing to the county wildlife charities or similar organisations, however these charities are not always interested in sites, particularly if they are small and isolated or if they fear that their management may conflict with the interests of the bereaved who may still visit or own any rights of burial.

One way to avoid this difficulty is to ensure that a site, once full, will support itself in some other way. Even taking into consideration the ring fenced maintenance funds that most sites pay into, there is some concern that this will not be sufficient to manage these sites safely and well and that some other ‘use’ would ensure that they have a positive future.

One way of approaching this problem is that the sites either retain an agricultural use or that the woodland that is established by way of memorial tree planting is in itself sustainable. This means that burials on farmland sites are carried out without the planting of trees and the site continues to be grazed and managed as a productive meadow. Or if, as is more common, the graves are marked with memorial trees that these trees provide an income that will pay for the maintenance and management of the woodland.

For most people the thought of ‘granny’s tree’ being chopped down and processed in some way is distressing. This however does not have to be the case. Properly managed woodland can retain its memorialisation and still sustain itself through coppice woodland management.

The case for coppicing

Since the last ice age our ancestors have controlled and managed the woodlands of the UK. There are very few rare examples of pre human influenced ‘native woodland’ left in the UK, all our ancient woodland has developed as the result of millennia of human management. Our woodland plants and animals have evolved as a result of this work and in fact now rely on the active management of woodland to survive. Since the 2nd world war most woodland has been abandoned and simply run as sporting shoots, this has resulted in 60% of it becoming derelict and of little benefit to wildlife.

Traditional woodland management should not be confused with the forestry practices established in the 20th century. Which, on the whole, created alien monoculture landscapes.

Our ancient woodlands were a source of fuel and timber for hundreds of years and it is this resurgence of interest in bio-fuel that can solve the issue of sustainable burial sites.

A healthy woodland consists of four levels of vegetation; the high tree canopy (standards); an underwood layer (shrub/coppice); flora (ferns and plants); and ground level mosses and fungi.

The key here is the coppice level. If a low percentage of graves are planted with tree species that are allowed to become the high, permanent level, standard trees like oak, then the majority of the graves are planted with coppice species such as hazel, chestnut, ash or whitebeam to name a few. These trees will then be ‘pruned’ at or near ground level, at an interval of between 7 and 15 years depending on the local conditions and the species. This coppicing does not kill the tree but encourages more rigorous growth that supports abundant wildlife and the cut wood can provide an income to the woodsman from a variety of products.

This opening up of the woodland in sections year by year is exactly what our ancestors did and through this practice, sections of the wood receive light and warmth every few years. This triggers the growth and germination of many different woodland flowers that we all associate with British woodland, which through their evolution rely on this system of management to survive. Of course the wildlife dependent on coppicing goes beyond the flowers and includes species of insect and butterfly, bird and mammal.

If woodland is kept open all the time and the canopy is not allowed to grow densely together periodically cutting out the light, grasses will flourish, these will compete with weaker species such as bluebell and primrose and the woodland would turn into parkland. Therefore the coppicing system is an ideal way of preventing this with its cyclical felling.

When families have this explained to them, they appreciate that without this denser planting of coppice species not many graves can be permanently marked with a tree with a guaranteed long life. Many sites intend to thin the memorial trees, which for many families is a lot harder to accept. With coppicing, every family can have a memorial tree that has the potential to live for hundreds of years.

Coppice products include hurdles made from the rods from the hazel stools, fencing from chestnut, thatching spurs from hazel and garden poles from a variety of species. Seconds can be sold as fire wood which is a carbon neutral fuel source; this is now commonly turned into woodchip which powers biomass systems.

The woodsman pays for the right to harvest this underwood, not only providing the burial site with an income that could cover public liability insurance for example but the felling activity within the wood will also ensure that it remains clear and accessible to visitors and does not get snarled up with bramble and scrub.

This system does not provide a solution for very small sites as there would not be any value in the quantity of wood products produced within the cycles. For these, an agricultural or wood-pasture solution would work better.

Another conflict could occur if individual site managers have allowed the planting of useless tree species across their sites, or the planting of rigorous invasive species on the graves such as rhododendron.