Colorado
Colorado’s vast landscapes, from the alpine forests to the high desert plains, have inspired a growing movement to protect land through green and conservation burial. Across the state, a handful of sanctuaries are redefining what it means to rest in peace by ensuring that every farewell gives back to the land.
🌿 Colorado Burial Preserve – Florence
Nestled along the Arkansas River Valley, this emerging conservation burial preserve seeks to protect wild habitat while offering natural burials free from embalming, vaults, or heavy machinery. The land is envisioned as a living ecosystem — where every interment restores prairie health and wildlife corridors.
🌿 Seven Stones Botanical Garden Cemetery — Littleton
A contemporary, garden-forward cemetery that blends art, native plantings, and memorial spaces. Families seeking a lighter footprint can ask for vault-free interment (where permitted), biodegradable caskets or shrouds, and simple, nature-fit memorialization—bringing green-burial values into a beautifully landscaped setting.
🌿 Roselawn Cemetery — Fort Collins (City Cemetery / Hybrid)
Municipal cemetery serving Northern Colorado families. Ask the office about green-friendly protocols: no embalming, biodegradable containers, and vault-free interment (when allowed) or alternatives that minimize concrete and metal. A practical option for those wanting simplicity within a community cemetery.
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Crestone End of Life Project (CEOLP) – Crestone
In the small mountain town of Crestone, CEOLP operates one of the nation’s only open-air cremation sites, rooted in community and spiritual practice. Families and volunteers participate in every step, honoring both ancient traditions and modern ecological consciousness. While not a burial ground, CEOLP provides an intimate, sacred experience in harmony with the natural cycles of fire, air, and renewal.
Colorado shows the spectrum, from conservation preserves and hybrid sections to a community pyre, each inviting families to choose less concrete, less metal, and more connection to land, ritual, and place.
If you want information on how to start your own natural burial cemetery, or you want to make me aware of another green, natural, or hybrid cemetery in this state, please reach out!
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