Our Mission

We envision a world where natural burial is accessible to all, honoring the earth, the departed and those they leave behind. Our mission is to champion the cause of natural burial, making it a legal and viable option for everyone. Through passionate advocacy, educational outreach, and forming strong partnerships with like-minded organizations, we strive to innovate and create sustainable solutions that support the growth of natural burial practices. Together, we foster a deeper connection between communities and environmentally conscious end-of-life options.

  • Creston Cemetery

    Baxley Andresen saw Creston Cemetery in Spring of 2021 and felt an immediate connection with this historic burial ground. She partnered with Ed Bixby of Destination Destiny Memorials for his years of experience of revitalizing older cemeteries for natural burial in the 21st century. Currently, Creston Cemetery offers natural burials and cremated remains interment. It’s also a space available for a multitude of events outside the rituals of burial.

  • Interfaith Blessing Ceremony

    Faith and cultural leaders from all over the county came to bless the cemetery within their tradition and customs. Before the blessing ceremony, musicians played old American fiddle, guitar and banjo. A cemetery tour was given to demonstrate natural burial and two local women from Creston offered sweet refreshments to thirty attendees. With this event, the owners of Creston Cemetery wanted to show the burial ground’s openness to all faiths and walks of life who desire a natural burial.

  • Movie Night

    Harold & Maude (1971) What film better encompasses the idea to live, not despite death, but because of death? We hosted over 100 attendees for both the screening and a cemetery tour. Liquid Death was a beverage sponsor, S&S Seeds donated wild flowers seeds and the Botanical Garden of San Luis Obispo offered free tickets as part of our pre-movie raffle.

  • In-Person Presentations

    Baxley Andresen leads lectures that give a grounding on how cemeteries got to where we are today. With that context, she teaches on what natural burial is and how we can still do it at participating cemeteries. Speaking towards the future, she elaborates on the newer disposition offerings that have just become available in the last decade. She hopes that her audiencescan become more informed cemetery and funeral consumers so they can know all their choices and plan accordingly.

Our Founder

Baxley Andresen (she/her) brings a diverse background in prop design, art department, event production, and puppetry to the funeral industry. With a BFA in Visual Arts from SUNY Purchase and a Horticulture certificate from UCLA, she offers a unique perspective.

In 2018-2019, Baxley supported families as an administrative assistant to Alua Arthur of Going with Grace. During the pandemic, she worked as a funeral arranger at FRIENDS Funeral Home in Venice, California. Her main goal was to create a natural burial cemetery, which she achieved in 2021 by becoming the co-owner of Creston Cemetery, a natural and historical burial site in central California. She now gives talks across the state about funeral industry history and innovative funeral planning.

Baxley is in her second term as Vice President of The Green Burial Council (c)6 and volunteers with the Valley Chevra Kadisha in Los Angeles, performing ritual washing and sitting with the dead in accordance with Jewish customs. Dedicated to sustainable and compassionate end-of-life care, Baxley continues to advocate for natural burial options and meaningful funeral experiences.

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

— Nelson Henderson

Contact Us

Reach out to learn more about our mission and work, or to collaborate on a project. We’d love to hear from you.

213.448.9120

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