TheSan Francisco based start-up is opening what they call a 'Conservation Memorial Forest' near Twin Peaks, CA. They aim to offer an alternative final resting place for your ashes.
Mark Kehke is the Chief Real Estate Officer for the company and shared one of their main goals, saying, “It was really about creating a beautiful final resting place for people where they want to come and visit and matching that conservation mission with a beautiful end of life experience. Felt like a good alternative to the other choices that a family would have.”
Sandy Gibson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Better Place Forests; he told me more about how the process would work . He told me, “Every time someone buys a tree, they’re buying permanent dedication rights, with permanent access rights for their family to come back to their tree. So it ensures that families will always have access to the forest, that the forest will always be maintained as a beautiful open space. And then every time we sell a tree, a family makes a contribution to a stewardship fund, and that stewardship fund has the funds that pay for the ongoing care and maintenance of this forest forever.”
The San Bernardino Mountain Land Trust owns several large plots of forest in the area. They previously owned the 50-Acre property before selling it to Better Place Forests. Peter Joris is their Executive Director. He told me, “They will be protecting 90% of trees, you know, keeping it in as maximum level of conservation protection as you possibly could look for, apart from having it owned by a conservancy or the forest service.”
Joris also explained what the Land Trust will be doing with the funds saying, “and by selling to Better Place Forests, this property will continue to be protected. We will then get funding that will enable us to buy another property.”
In total, this unique start-up hasten forests across six different states. They plan to start showing the San Bernardino Mountain property to potential clients this fall.
