Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
We’re here to help. Below are answers to questions we often get asked about green burials, planning, and our conservation cemetery. If your question isn’t answered below, please contact us.
The conservation cemetery is a nature preserve open to all. Anyone who is interested in burial on our grounds may purchase interment rights or immediate need burial services.
We welcome members of all beliefs, faiths, and traditions, and we honor all funeral rituals and burial needs provided they are green and safe to accommodate on our grounds. Please contact us if you have specific burial ritual requests.
The cemetery does have a section (rows V-AA) set aside for Jewish burial. Please contact us if your community is interested in reserving a section.
Traditional headstones are not used at Blazing Star Sanctuary. Each interment site has an exact GPS coordinate, verified from in-ground survey pins marking each burial plot. GPS coordinates are provided to families following interments, and our cemetery will provide a helpful ‘walk to grave’ feature on our website along with online, interactive memorial pages. Our stewards are happy to help families locate a gravesite at any time. In accordance with state law, our cemetery maintains careful records of precise burial locations within our database as well as with the county clerk. We keep meticulous records both on paper and electronically.
Cut flowers or greenery may be placed on a grave. Small stones (less than 3”) may be placed as well for those who practice this tradition (common within the Jewish faith). Vases, stands and easels may be used during burial services but removed after the service is complete.
We host memorial planting events and welcome all ages to participate. These community restoration events are vital to the conservation cemetery’s ongoing preservation and provide a meaningful way to help care for your loved one’s place of rest.
All burial services are concluded with a planting of native grasses and/or wildflowers. If you would like to include additional plants on your loved one’s resting place, plants are available from our nursery.
We allow burial of mementos and personal belongings as long as they are made of natural materials – leather, paper, wood, cotton, etc. Please let the cemetery stewards know which items you would like to place in your loved one’s grave.
Once the restoration is complete, our primary trails will adhere to ADA regulations for ease of access for all visitors. When needed for a burial, a temporary path will be mowed to provide direct access to the burial plot. The gravesites themselves will be covered over by native vegetation soon after burial.
The cemetery grounds are part of the larger Katy Prairie Preserve system, and we do offer nature-based programming and volunteer opportunities. The grounds are open regularly and visitors may enter the property through the pedestrian gate from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. Our policies encourage passive recreation with respect for other visitors and burial services occurring on the site while you are visiting.
Plots may be purchased online via our website (See “Get Started/Ready to Buy”) or by contacting our Family Care and Planning Manager. Please call (713) 860-7410 or email info@naturesburial.org
We do not require you to work with any particular funeral home. We are happy to honor your wishes and work with any funeral director that you choose. The most important thing is that they understand and are supportive of your wish to have a conservation burial. The Green Burial Council also provides a national list of licensed Green Funeral Homes.
We permit interment of cremated remains (“ashes”) in a natural, biodegradable container. We will also amend the soil surrounding the remains with supplements to restore the soil’s natural pH since cremated remains are quite alkaline.
Green burial fosters a family and nature-centered approach to end-of-life care. Simplicity, affordability, and environmental sustainability are key features of a green burial service. A conservation burial goes a step further in allowing one’s body to return peacefully to the earth while surrounded by nature. When you choose conservation burial, you are choosing a living, natural, and lasting memorial.
Yes. Natural burial is a time-honored tradition across our planet and within our state. Most conventional cemeteries require vaults, headstones, and caskets. Funeral homes often require embalming. State and county laws do not require these materials or processes. Green cemeteries simply provide the option of having a natural, simple burial.
Natural burial protects the sanctity of the body and burial site. Nature’s Burial and conservation burials go a step further in permanently conserving large tracts of natural land.
As a conservation cemetery, we adhere to a number of practices that prioritize lasting protection and restoration of the supporting ecosystem. Most importantly, conservation burial requires that an independent conservation organization, typically a land trust, serve as steward of the land and holder of the permanent protection instrument.
Conservation Burial requires an active connection to and respect for the land. By protecting imperiled ecosystems and restoring the habitat for native wildlife, every burial helps heal the land. Conservation Burial Grounds are not just cemeteries, but also sanctuaries of life, where native species can thrive, visitors can find respite in nature, students can be inspired, and so much more.
More than half of the dead in the United States are cremated today, according to a report from the National Funeral Directors Association, up from an industry-estimated rate of just 4% in the 1960s. The trend toward cremation happened beginning in the 1960s when 1) people began wanting simpler, more affordable funeral services and 2) Americans wanted to protect open lands from development. Green burials achieve both of these goals to an even greater extent.
Natural burials are affordable, simple, respectful to the body, and family-directed. Green burial grounds also preserve open lands and avoid the use of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases and toxins which are unavoidable in traditional cremation. Water cremation and composting are also green options, but these options are not yet legal for humans in Texas.
We do respect those who wish to be cremated, and we permit interment of cremated remains within our cemetery’s burial plots.
On average, a conventional burial produces 250 pounds of CO2. Flame cremation produces 250-536 pounds of CO2. A natural burial, on the other hand, actually sequesters 25 pounds of CO2. (Source: https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/disposition-statistics-media.html)
No. Natural lands produce much cleaner water than urban, suburban, or agricultural areas (including conventional cemeteries that rely on chemical use). The Blazing Star Sanctuary and surrounding lands protected by the Coastal Prairie Conservancy provide cleaner water for the surrounding watersheds. Burial depths are regulated by the state and are located high above the water table allowing the native soils and grasses to act as a giant filter. The density of burials is also only 10-30% of conventional cemeteries. As we restore the lands within our preserve back to natural prairie, we will continue to see improving water quality and soil health.
No. Natural burial is an ancient, proven method of burial. In fact, all burials were natural until around 150 years ago. Early cemeteries located in wild areas that contained many scavenger species were not disturbed. Farmers and ranchers conduct livestock burials regularly without incident. Our cemetery also follows state regulations on the proper depth of burial to prevent disturbance of the grave site. The Green Burial Council reports no evidence among any of their member cemeteries that animals are attracted to natural burial sites. The Green Burial Councils recommended depth is 3.5 feet. A minimum distance of 18 inches is needed to keep the body out of the “smell zone” – the distance between the deceased and the surface that makes the odor noticeable to humans or other animal species.
Our burial plots are 13 1/2 x 8 feet. This is compared to 4×8 feet for a conventional cemetery plot. This larger plot size allows us to protect more habitat and avoid undue disturbance to the native flora and fauna living on the preserve. Each burial plot is replanted with native species following a burial. Families are welcome to participate in this restoration activity.
The Blazing Star Sanctuary has a much lower burial density, at no more than 300 plots per acre, compared to conventional cemeteries which house 1,000 – 1,200 burial plots per acre. This lower density protects the surrounding ecosystem.
Green burial has received more attention in the media in recent years as an innovative way to care both for our loved ones and the earth, but green burial is not a new concept. Caring for a loved one’s body and interring their remains naturally was the standard practice in the United States until 100-150 years ago, and natural burial is still the most accepted, common practice in nations across our globe.
Cultural changes in the late 1800s led to the prevalence of formal cemeteries and body preservation practices here in the United States. These factors stemmed from historic shifts during the Civil War and Industrial Revolution.
American cemeteries during the 19th Century’s Industrial Revolution were valued as rural park space for increasingly urban residents. The rural cemetery park movement borrowed from pastoral English landscape traditions and provided a key service for American families since most US cities did not have organized park systems or botanic gardens. Cemeteries with open landscapes and widely spaced trees allowed for picnics, carriage rides, and casual walks.
During this time, increasing levels of casket ornamentation and grave monumentation also took place as funeral directing became a more established profession that provided a greater array of goods and services.
Early funerals in the United States had been led by families, including a viewing held in the family’s parlor before a simple burial on family or church land. With the advent of funeral homes and formal cemeteries, wealthier families were able to host services outside their homes at funeral parlors, initiating the shift from labeling the home’s front room as the “parlor” to the “living room.”
The casualties during the Civil War took a vast toll on our nation. Many soldiers died in battle far from their families and homes. The development of embalming became a mainstay in our nation’s funeral practices after President Abraham Lincoln encouraged embalmers to follow behind battles where they would then preserve soldiers’ bodies so that the bodies could then make the long journey home for a viewing and burial.
When President Lincoln was assassinated tragically, his own body was also embalmed and then taken by train across the nation for large-scale viewings before his own interment in Illinois.
Embalming then became the favored cultural practice, largely unique to our nation, to show deference and “proper” care for the body.
The current green burial movement emphasizes a return to simple, natural body care and protection of our nation’s habitats.
The first conservation cemetery in the United States was Ramsey Creek Preserve, established in 1998 by Dr. William and Kimberley Campbell in Westminster, South Carolina. Ramsey Creek became an important site for researching and establishing standards for future green cemeteries. In 2005, the Green Burial Council was founded to oversee certification standards within the growing green burial movement, and Ramsey Creek became the first certified Conservation Burial Ground.
Early leaders brought together experts from the fields of sustainable design, restoration ecology, conservation management, law, and consumer affairs to establish standards and foster the creation of new green burial grounds.
Today, the Green Burial Council has grown to become the standard-bearer and lead steward of the green burial movement, ensuring that end-of-life practices further environmental protection in all the ways we care for our departed.
Our conservation cemetery is protected to an even greater degree than conventional cemeteries. There are four ways these lands will be protected and maintained permanently:
The burial grounds have been registered as a community cemetery and there is a dedicated fund for ongoing maintenance.
The cemetery deed has been recorded with the county clerk, and each interment record will be registered there as well.
The Blazing Star Sanctuary is subject to deed restrictions to protect the conservation values of the sanctuary as a natural area.
The Coastal Prairie Conservancy, a well-established and accredited nonprofit land trust, will ensure the conservation cemetery’s protection and management as a natural area forever as it does for the over 30,000 acres it already protects in Texas.
Our team at the Coastal Prairie Conservancy specializes in native prairie restoration and management. The creation of a nature sanctuary will take place with a proven, multi-year restoration regime to remove introduced plant species, restore soil health and topography, bring back native grassland species.
After the grassland species begin to take hold, the team will continue to enforce sustainable grazing and/or haying practices to maintain the natural, open prairie ecosystem. Controlled burns will also be utilized every few years to mimic these vital natural processes safely, removing woody growth and encouraging herbaceous plant diversity.
