Just northeast of Pittsburgh in Verona, you can find Pennsylvania’s first and only exclusively natural burial ground — 31 acres of sprawling woodland and hiking trails, complete with a wildflower garden and even a small animal farm.
The grounds at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park are as much for the living as the dead. Burials here allow bodies to return to the soil, and mourners can connect to the land.
City Cast Pittsburgh joined the Penn Forest team to learn about this eco-friendly cemetery and how the space serves the community.
The Penn Forest Natural Burial Park team in the wildflower garden. (Francesca Dabecco / City Cast Pittsburgh)
What Is Green Burial?
Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact. Everything that goes into the ground is biodegradable, including what a person is wearing and the container they’re buried in. Bodies are also prepared for burial without toxic embalming fluid.
Caskets must be made of natural material such as pine, willow, bamboo, and seagrass casket; cardboard is also an accessible and affordable option.
Penn Forest offers whole body burial in its Meadow and Wooded Groves, where a body is wrapped in a shroud and lowered into a soft bed of straw to naturally decompose. Cremated remains can also be buried on these grounds in biodegradable urns.
Even the headstones are intentional. At Penn Forest, markers must be flat to the ground and made of wood or stone that’s indigenous to southwestern Pennsylvania.
People are buried among the trees at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park. (Francesca Dabecco / City Cast Pittsburgh)
Do You Still Need To Use a Funeral Home?
Penn Forest doesn’t prepare bodies after death, so mourners still need to work with a funeral home. There are about a dozen certified green funeral homes in the Pittsburgh area, but manager Laura Faessel says Penn Forest will also work with funeral homes that aren’t certified and guide them through the process.
Funeral homes aren't the only option. In PA, it’s legal to hold a home funeral where family and friends care for the body after death and then bring their loved one to Penn Forest for burial.
Penn Forest Natural Burial Park's cemetery office is located in a cottage on the property. If you visit, be sure to say hi to the cottage cat, "Ghost." (Francesca Dabecco / City Cast Pittsburgh)
How Can Loved Ones Be Involved With the Process?
There are a lot of ways that family and friends can be a part of burying and memorializing the deceased, and the Penn Forest team says they’re open to many forms of involvement. Some people have chosen to dig or backfill the grave themselves. Pallbearing and lowering happens by hand, a practice you typically won’t find in traditional cemeteries.
Mourners can hold graveside services. Some bring instruments into the woods and play music, set up easels with their loved one’s portraits, or decorate the burial container with painted handprints or a handmade quilt.
On a return visit to the site, visitors are welcome to pick blooms in the wildflower garden to place on the grave, have a picnic, and spend a peaceful day exploring the land.
This article was written by Francesca Dabecco, and the podcast interview was produced by Megan Harris, Mallory Falk, and Sophia Lo.
Thank you to manager Laura Faessel, assistant manager Deanna Mance, grounds manager Thom Wood, and gardener Misha Alexandria for welcoming the City Cast Pittsburgh team.
