Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Natural burial (also sometimes called “green burial”) is the simple act of burying the dead without embalming, without vaults, and with only containers, shrouds or other materials that are biodegradable. This is an ancient method of burial and is legal in all 50 states. Natural burial eliminates the production, transportation, and interment in the ground of both raw and finished materials associated with burial: vaults, caskets, embalming fluids. Caskets alone have large carbon footprints, even the biodegradable ones if they are shipped to their final destination. By sourcing burial containers made by local craftspeople and artists who likewise source their materials nearby, not only is there immediate and close-to-home economic benefit, but there is severe reduction in activity that compounds the toll on the environment.

A Conservation Cemetery seeks to use burial as a conservation strategy, permanently ties individuals and families to the land through their shared story, and works to improve ecological health and promote sustainable climate change mitigation through compliance with the Green Burial Council’s Conservation Burial Ground certification standards. Conservation Cemeteries operate as fully licensed cemeteries, while employing accepted conservation land management practices as we steward the land.

The two disposition choices most used today in the United States today are conventional burial and cremation. Each year, conventional burials bury 20 million board feet of hardwood, 64,500 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete, 2,700 tons of copper/bronze and use 827,000 gallons of toxic formaldehyde embalming fluid.

While cremation may seem to be a more benign environmental choice, the average cremation uses 28 gallons of fuel to burn a single body. This emits about 540 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere in addition to mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.

In a Natural Burial, one’s body and only biodegradable accessories return to the earth so there is little or no environmental footprint.

While no land has yet to be secured, the Red Hills Community Cemetery is collaborating with the Hickory Preserve nonprofit, who is seeking to preserve an up to 99-acre tract of woodland, maple swamp, hickory hammock, and wildlife habitat to the East of Tallahassee in a conservation easement. The RHCC vision is to establish the cemetery on the Hickory Preserve once this land is purchased.

Individual burial plots are included with membership for each member, both for full body and cremains.

Each Member Agreement has an informational field for the “Member” and a field for the “Payer”. In this circumstance, one family member would be designated as the “Payer” on multiple Member Agreements. The person designated as the “Member” on each Agreement is who will enjoy the rights of Membership, including applicable voting rights.

Yes, cremains are allowed. Each person becomes a member of the cemetery through a membership fee of $4,000. This membership includes an interment certificate for either full body interment or cremains interment.

The RHCC has a transferability policy that allows for transfers when approved by the RHCC Board of Directors. For more details and the full policy, please reach out to contact@redhillscommunitycemetery.com

The RHCC Board of Directors is operating on a 3 year timeline for opening. Once land is acquired, we will be able to update our timeline estimate as we work with the County and land management team.

Specific plot locations are not being sold by the RHCC, but rather burial rights (also referred to as interment rights) as part of membership in the community cemetery. Purchase of an interment right guarantees Members a burial plot within the forest. Owners of interment rights acquire no rights in the ownership of real estate in the cemetery.
The specific location of your burial is determined by cemetery operations managers just prior to interment. This maximizes the usefulness of the space and maintains equipment travel corridors needed for burial. It is a primary goal of the RHCC to work with and around the trees to minimize impact to them during burials, and this is much easier when specific plot locations are not reserved in advance.

The RHCC will approach plot sizes in accordance with industry standards, local law, and recommendations by the Conservation Burial Alliance. Full body burial plots 4’ x 10’. A full body plot will accommodate burial for one person. Cremation burial plots are 3’ x 3’. A cremation burial plot will accommodate one person’s cremains.
There may exist natural objects such as trees, tree roots, or stones within either type of plot. The plot sizes do not indicate the size of the grave itself, which is typically closer to 3’ by 8’ for full body burial. Overall density will be maintained at or below the Green Burial Council standard for a conservation burial ground: a maximum density of 400 burials per acre and an average density of 300 burials per acre. We estimate that density will be even less than 300 per-acre. By comparison, many conventional cemeteries have densities of 1,000+ per acre.

Recognizing that family members may desire to be interred in proximity to one another, family plots consisting of two adjacent interment plots may be requested. The location of these plots will not be chosen until the time of death of one of the owners of interment rights. Requests for up to four adjacent plots can be made, but such requests will be accommodated only when the cemetery operations managers consider them to be logistically feasible. Two adjacent plots can be guaranteed. There are many obstacles (namely trees) in the cemetery, and reserving groupings of many plots poses logistical challenges, but we will do our best to accommodate.

RHCC is anticipated to be operational within the next three years. Memberships purchased prior to property being secured may be refundable minus an administrative fee of $200, should the RHCC take longer to open. Additionally, if a member dies prior to the cemetery opening, the family may request a refund minus a $200 admin fee.

In an effort to ensure that the land remains as natural as possible, all markers will be uniform and individual members cannot choose their own. Markers consist of a 3” brass disk with name, birth and death dates, and GPS location. A map will be made available for loved ones.
Photo below is a brass marker from Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery in Gainesville. This is the type of marker that will be used at Red Hills Community Cemetery.

Natural burial with the RHCC is more affordable than traditional cemeteries. A membership with RHCC is $4,000. The cost for traditional burial in the region ranges from $5,000 to upwards of $35,000, inclusive of the plot, casket, closing of the grave, and embalming.
While many Cemeteries in the Tallahassee Region do not keep their pricing publicly available, our volunteers consolidated fees and costs from nearby cemeteries and funeral homes to create an overall picture of potential costs:

– Plot: Range from $1,048 to $6,995
– Caskets: Range from $1,695 to $28,000
– Opening/Closing of Grave: Range from $1,395-$2,000
– Embalming: $1,095
– Totals: Range from ~$5,233 – $38,090+

Each of these burials in traditional cemeteries don’t include the cost to the environment. These cemeteries have highly manicured spaces and embalming fluid/plastics/metals in the ground. At RHCC a portion of the burial is used to conserve, restore, and protect the land through land management planned in a conservation easement with a land trust.

The RHCC is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of connecting people and the land. There are no hidden fees or profit motives. The $4,000 RHCC Membership Fee includes:

– Interment Certificate (Right to the Burial Plot)
– Opening and Closing of the Grave one hour before and one hour after the burial for a gathering with table, chairs, shade tent,
– Participation in environmental preservation of the land.

The RHCC does not have the ability to provide Human Composting services, however, composted remains that comply with Green Burial Alliance standards may be interred at the RHCC.