Intended to Meet Community Needs and Promote Land Conservation
The Denman Island Natural Burial Cemetery is a community cemetery. It is meant for all Denman Island residents and landowners, present and past, and the members of their immediate families, regardless of their faith.
The Cemetery provides approximately 1000 graves and is intended to serve the community for about 100 years. The design was created by the Community Studio, a Vancouver-based non-profit society comprising landscape architects and other professionals who donate their time to assist with outdoor community projects.
Follow this link to hear more about the Cemetery design. While creating the design, members of the Community Studio consulted frequently with the Denman Island community over a period of eighteen months, in particular, with the Board of Directors of the Denman Island Memorial Society (DIMS).
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The Cemetery meets all government requirements relating to burials, in particular the stipulations of the B.C. Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act and Regulation. The DIMS Board has a Certificate of Public Interest and a Place of Interment Operator’s Licence from Consumer Protection BC.
The intent from the start was that the Cemetery adhere to the practices of natural burial. This objective is articulated in the Rules and Regulations of the Cemetery, which were finalized in 2015 and adopted as the DIMS Cemetery Bylaws.
It is also intended that the ecological values of the land be protected over time and the burial areas returned to their natural state. The Cemetery falls within the Coastal Douglas-fir Moist Maritime Biogeoclimatic Region. Although the land was clear cut in 1999–2000, by 2013 red alder trees and small young conifers were found on most of the property, heralding the return of the Douglas fir/salal/Oregon Grape plant community found in this area and its associated ferns, mosses, and wildflowers.
The terms of the Conservation Covenant registered on the property ensure that, over time, the indigenous species and habitat are protected. The Covenant also stipulates that the requirements of the highest category of the Green Burial Council Standards (the ‘Conservation Burial Ground’) are met on a continuing basis.