‘A nature preserve where people happen to be buried’: Maryland’s first green cemetery to open next month in Windsor Mill

In the 1990s, Kim Holcomb battled for curbside recycling pickup as president of Owings Mills Green Action. She’s been interested in environmental issues ever since. And so, when she learned that Baltimore County would host Maryland’s first natural burial ground, Holcomb felt called to sign on for a plot. “It’s like the ultimate recycling to have a green burial,” said Holcomb, who now lives in Pikesville. “It’s ashes to ashes and dust to dust. And it makes a lot of sense to me.” A few other cemeteries in the state allow for natural burials, which bypass elaborate caskets, concrete vaults and traditional embalming in favor of simpler, biodegradable methods that allow a body to decompose in the earth.