Thinking outside the box. (updates).(new trend of being buried au naturel in fields, forests or seas)

A growing number of environmentally conscious people abhor the idea of having their mortal remains embalmed, sealed in a metal or plastic casket and buried in a cement vault. In response, some firms are, literally, breaking new ground.

There's a new trend that's all about what we leave behind. Conventional cemeteries turn a huge number of beautiful places into rows upon rows of gravestones--landfills of embalming chemicals and cement. Then back-hoes, lawnmowers and tree pruning equipment put diesel emissions into the air and pesticides and fertilizers into the water. Environmentalists say it's a grave situation.

Increasingly, people are choosing "green graves"--being buried au naturel amid the fields, forests and even the waters of the seas.

At Memorial Ecosystems, located on the 32-acre Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina, there are no manicured lawns, marble monoliths or metal vaults. Bodies can't be embalmed, caskets must be biodegradable and graves are marked only with natural, flat stones. It is managed as a "nature preserve first, cemetery second." Memorial Ecosystems hopes to establish a nationwide chain of memorial wilderness areas.

And Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, has set aside 70 acres of fields, creeks, ponds and woods in the state's panhandle region for a memorial park. It's currently ...