Welcome to Bluestem
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A place of reverence in a nature preserve, with native grassland restoration, a trail network, quiet areas for reflection, open space for contemplation, and a conservation cemetery for natural burial.
Imagine your favorite walking path—in a Piedmont landscape, fields of native grasslands rolling in front of you, the sky above you, open and wide. A path draws you into the woodlands, past ferns and shrubs, into a quiet glade with a nearby pond. Birdsong and crickets add notes to the quiet, butterflies and dragonflies color the air. The trees welcome you with reverence, and the seasons offer you their timely gifts. The clean scent of the earth reminds you: you are home. |
What's Happening at Bluestem Click on links below to learn more!
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Care to drop in to Bluestem (virtually)? In the spring of 2023, graduate students from Duke University's Community Based Environmental Management program spent time at Bluestem documenting the activities, the landscape, and interviewing some volunteers and families. They asked the question, "What does Bluestem mean to you?" Click here for their answer. |
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond." —Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Place of Worship in a Nature Preserve
Grassland Restoration for Native Habitat
A Conservation Cemetery for Green Burial
Grassland Restoration for Native Habitat
A Conservation Cemetery for Green Burial
1900 Hurdle Mills Road, Cedar Grove, North Carolina 27231
All photos credit Bluestem except Community Gathering by Kallyn Boerner.
Read about Bluestem Conservation Cemetery
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Read Exchanging Gifts, an article about conservation burial featured in this Summer issue of The Land Trust Alliance's publication Saving Land. Here's an excerpt:
"Within the course of a year, veteran conservationists Heidi Hannapel and Jeff Masten’s parents received terminal diagnoses. They each took leaves of absence from their careers to support their parents’ dying at home. Emerging from these life changing events, they recognized they could apply their conservation experience to building a local, community project that could change the way people approach life, death and burial." Read the entire article here |
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Bluestem. Where nature is enough.
All photos credit Bluestem Community. Header photo courtesy of Jackie Rimmler.
