
A California Startup Is Using Ashes to Protect Forests - Mz
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/california-startup-using-ashes-protect-forests-180961289/?no-ist
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PeterWhittaker
Clever! They have bought land and are selling "plots" where one's ashes can be
scattered. The idea is that these forests will be protected by the combination
of private ownership and legal protections for cemeteries.

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brightball
That really is a genius idea.

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pj_mukh
Are ashes as good an idea as just the full body? Even if we are turned off by
the idea, if full body decomposition is more productive for a forest than
ashes, lets do that!

I'd be down for a full tree growing out from my unburnt remains if it was more
useful to the forest.

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spraak
Metal lyrics idea:

I OFFER MY ROTTING REMAINS AS A GIFT TO TO THE FOREST FROM MY UNBURNT BODY
COME FORTH A SAPPLING

Would work really well as a Melodic Blackened Folk Doom metal song

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spraak
I'm actually surprised at the down votes :( and I take HN karma too seriously

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ChuckMcM
I think this is a clever strategy for preserving forests. It also provides for
a cemetary that can be used essentially forever which is also a good thing as
tying up land in cemeteries can cause its own problems. Focusing on cremation
works well too as disbursing the cremains around can be done again and again
even on the same spot, not so easily with full body burial.

That said, there is nothing preventing someone from buying a few dozen acres
in the Sierras making an actual forest cemetery (where the headstone is a
tree). As long as plots were separated by 10' you could make bury someone and
then at one end plant a sapling (its root ball being about 2' in diameter).
That would be large enough to have a high chance of survival, but small enough
that it would clearly be a 'new' tree.

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dmalvarado
Hah! I'll have to show this to my wife. She already knows to spread my ashes
in the California Redwoods. Now maybe we can protect them as well.

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nightski
So now spreading ones ashes costs money. That is hilarious.

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feld
Catholics have to bury their ashes in a cemetery which requires a non-
biodegradable urn. It costs a lot of money.

Ridiculous they don't want you to spread your ashes.

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toasted
This is fantastic.

