The Anchorage Assembly voted on June 9 to approve AO 2026-72, which authorizes the transfer of land from Heritage Land Bank's inventory to Alaska Natural Burial.
The 9.6-acre tract of land, which is legally described as Tract B-2 Legacy Pointe Subdivision (Plat14 2013-18), can be used for the purposes of creating a natural burial cemetery. The area is wooded city land near Golden View Drive.
Alaska Natural Burial is a nonprofit organization that would like to provide what it describes as a low-cost option compared to a casket cemetery.
The idea would be to make the plot, which could hold up to 2,000 graves, look more like a park with natural landscaping.
The Alaska Natural Burial website describes the project as follows: “Natural burial (also known as green burial) describes a way of carrying out cemetery activities without harming the local ecosystem. Broadly, this means that only bodies and other readily biodegradable objects are placed in the ground.”
Increasingly, people are looking for options for their remains, from cremation to natural burial, according to a University of Southern California professor. https://today.usc.edu/what-we-think-about-death-and-funerals-is-changing/ Natural burial can include composting or using biodegradable materials, such as bamboo. There is also an option in some states for aquamation, an alternative to traditional flame cremation that uses a water and potassium hydroxide solution to gently break down tissue
No natural burial cemetery exists in Anchorage at present.
The municipality’s main burial spot, the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery at 535 East Ninth Ave., is 22 acres. It has public and private areas of burial and a columbarium wall, which can accommodate more than 9,000 urns of cremated remains. It is also the final resting spot of many Anchorage historical figures.
