Birds were singing peacefully on a recent muggy afternoon at Shelia Champion's new natural cemetery in rural Alabama.

Shelia Champion recently brought two baby goats to her natural cemetery, The Good Earth Burial Ground, to help maintain the landscape in Hazel Green. (Lucy Berry | lberry@al.com)

Two baby goats -- Waylon and Willie -- grazed on a small plot of land Champion owns in Hazel Green, where The Good Earth Burial Ground sits unassuming on what looks like any ordinary road near the Alabama-Tennessee state line.

Champion, who hopes her goats will help keep the cemetery free of weeds, poison ivy and other invasive plant life, is aware some people think her burial ground is creepy. Facebook friends have told her the concept just isn't for them, but that doesn't stop Champion from following her dream.

"I say, 'Well, it's different, but it's the way we used to do it,' and they'll come back and say, 'Yeah, it is,'" she said. "I'm not out to get in people's face and try to make them change their mind, but maybe open their minds just a hair and let it kind of sink in."

Overwhelming response

The grandmother and former contracts manager in Huntsville came out of obscurity in April when she, along with Virginia law firm Institute for Justice, sued the Alabama Board of Funeral Service in Montgomery for what she believed was an unconstitutional abuse of government power.

Champion was fighting for the right to sell biodegradable caskets, burial shrouds and urns, a privilege afforded only to licensed Alabama funeral directors until May when the law was revised to allow Champion to sell merchandise to customers without a license or converting her cemetery into a full-fledged funeral home.

Although her attorneys were prepared to bring the issue to the Supreme Court if necessary, Champion's lawsuit with IJ was eventually dismissed.

Looking back weeks later, Champion is still shocked the issue was resolved so quickly -- and that her relatively unknown cemetery for humans and pets had an impact on the industry statewide.

"It has been overwhelming," she said. "From the time I started this, I never dreamed it would blow up like it did."

Back-to-basics approach

Champion's desire to make Alabama a freer place for entrepreneurs and consumers has garnered support from across the U.S. Although she hasn't secured any burials at The Good Earth, Champion is confident more people will turn to the cemetery soon as they learn about her business.

"It's just been amazing at the interest and the, 'Oh wows, I didn't know you could do that,'" she said. "... I'm hoping that others realize that we are opening a door to more options."

At The Good Earth, bodies are prepared without embalming fluid, dressed in biodegradable clothing, placed into an earth-friendly shroud or casket, and buried without a vault. Only live flowers are permitted inside the cemetery, which also accepts cremated remains in an economical container.

The five-acre cemetery features two areas: a large untended forest in its natural state and a small meadow with burial plots arranged in rows as one would see at a traditional graveyard. The Good Earth requires caskets, shrouds and urns be made of eco-friendly materials like untreated cardboard or wood, silk or bamboo.

Affordable, local products

Now that she is able to sell supplies of her own, Champion is working with a former Redstone Arsenal co-worker to sew shrouds from muslin, a lightweight material resembling a flat bed sheet that wraps the body the same way one swaddles a newborn baby. The same friend who will sew shrouds said her husband or son-in-law may also build plain wooden coffins for Good Earth customers, Champion said.

The plan is to keep prices low and the products locally made.

"I'm not into this to make a lot of money," Champion said. "My goal is just to break even before I die."

Champion said she is working with Leland Cseke, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Science at UAH, to attain Green Burial Council certification at her cemetery. Attempts to reach Cseke this week about the process were unsuccessful.

The number of GBC providers, which includes cemeteries, funeral homes and product suppliers, has increased from one in 2006 to more than 340 in 41 states and six Canadian provinces. There are currently no cemeteries in Alabama that meet GBC's standards, according to the organization's website.

Caring for one's own

The National Home Funeral Alliance said the custom of caring for one's own was a common practice until the Civil War when mortuary surgeons began experimenting with embalming to get affluent northern soldiers home. Over time, it became the norm for families to turn to funeral homes after the loss of a loved one.

As a result, more people have lost touch with tradition. Champion, who provides home funeral training for free to groups of at least six people, hopes to change that. She is working with her attorney to seek clarification from the state about whether Alabama families must go through a licensed funeral director to host a home funeral, which is legal in every state.

Before residents write green burial off as "icky or weird," Champion hopes they will stop and think about their options, which aren't as scary as they might think.

"Come out here and wear your long pants and your shoes," she said. "We'll walk back into the forest and just sit and watch for a minute because it's so pretty out there."

To learn more about The Good Earth, click here.