Our Mission

The mission of Higher Ground is to hold and steward a compassionate, co-creative and life-affirming space for all beings that sustains a thriving native ecosystem—including native plant, animal, and microbe populations—and the social health of our community, by creating natural burial opportunities that conserve land and reunite people with the Earth. We aspire to be a resource and community for all who share our passion for a healthy woodland ecosystem, guided by principles of affordability, generosity, and sustainability.

Higher Ground Conservation Cemetery Association, Inc.

Higher Ground Conservation Cemetery Association, Inc. is a member of the national Conservation Burial Alliance and is pending certification from the Green Burial Council as the first certified conservation cemetery in Vermont.  We are a Vermont 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation formed in 2018 to serve as a Natural Burial Ground pursuant to 18 V.S.A. § 5800, located at 300 Sunset Lake Road, Williamsville, Vermont 05362.
We are in the home stretch of a 4-year approval process for opening natural burial to the community at large. 

National and Regional Partners

Conservation Burial Alliance                                       http://conservationburialalliance.org
Green Burial Council                                                     http://greenburialcouncil.org
New Hampshire Funeral Resources & Education    https://www.nhfuneral.org
Vermont Funeral Resources & Education                 https://www.vermontfuneral.org

Our Growing Community

Local Partners include providers of support services that comprise a broad range of collaborators: hospice, home funeral, interfaith practice, nature-based recreation, neighboring conservation groups, education and resettlement communities, artistic expression (in clay, paint, textile, reed, wood and stone), woodworking, and life event celebration. Outreach to engage indigenous communities and People of Color is ongoing.

Caring for Our Own has for three years been meeting monthly to grow the Green Burial community locally and beyond in support of one another's exploration and discovery around life and death issues. Learn more​

Conservation Partners

Vermont Land Trust holds the conservation easement on the land at Manitou and Higher Ground. This is its first conservation burial project. Vermont Land Trust has 600,000 acres under conservation easement.

The Manitou Project is the founding nonprofit partner and owner/steward of a 223-acre wilderness sanctuary surrounding Higher Ground, to which it donated 5 acres. Founded by Williamsville residents Pam and David Mayer 35 years ago as a place for all to enjoy, Manitou has become a community of families, schools, and partner organizations that share wilderness, Nature exploration and ecological experience on nine miles of trails with ‘sacred sites’, ledges, streams, ancient trees and labyrinths through programs, camps and self-discovery. ​

Our Founders and Stewards

Committed staff and volunteers, conservation interests locally and from across the state, and community partners together bring life to conservation burial at Higher Ground. Founding members include twenty initial placeholders—subscribers to conservation burial—and three founding board members: Michael Mayer, director and resident steward; Fred Taylor, long time president of Manitou and college professor of ecology and Nature-based spirituality; and Andrea Capron, documentation and organizational coordinator.

Michael Mayer

Andrea Capron

Fred Taylor

“ Crossing over is not just for the dying. It's for each of us when we’re one with the land, spacious and grounded in awe.”
​—Michael Mayer​