August 2024 Forum - Natural Organic Reduction at Herland Forest

Tune in to an insightful discussion with Walt Patrick of Herland Forest, the United States’ very first licensed natural organic reduction (NOR) facility!
Topics Include...
How Herland Forest is using human interment to steward and protect the natural environment.
How Walt developed his NOR process from 30 years of experience with naturally reducing livestock.
How Walt's NOR chamber works.
How Herland Forest uses enhanced natural burial to improve their forest ecosystem.
The future of NOR.
...and much more! Enjoy!
About Our Guest:
Walt Patrick leads a non-profit sustainability research center that studies how to feed, fuel, and clothe people on marginal land. This work is done on 120 acres of high-land forest on the eastern edge of the Cascadian wilderness some eighty miles east of Portland, OR. For more than three decades, Walt has been using the natural organic reduction of large mammals to rejuvenate the productivity of marginal forest land.
In 2015, a portion of that stewarded land became the Herland Forest Cemetery which is exploring the role of human interment as a way to prevent the clearing and development of forest land. The Herland name is a reference to a 1915 novel that dreamed of using the forest to sustainably provide for a community’s needs without relying on fossil fuels.
In 2017, Herland began the development of enhanced natural burial as a way to facilitate the growth of nut-bearing trees such as oaks and honey locus to feed birds, bees, and deer. Another goal is to decrease the methane emissions associated with the anaerobic decomposition of human remains through the creation of an in-ground aerobic chamber.
In 2019, when Washington passed legislation permitting the natural organic reduction of human remains, Herland worked with the Washington Cemetery Board and became the first facility in the country to be licensed to offer NOR for human remains. Walt also became the first person to be licensed to operate a NOR facility.
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