Wildlands Natural Cemetery was created from a simple belief: that burial can be both deeply meaningful and gentle on the land.
Located within protected natural landscape in Manitoba, Wildlands offers a place where families can return loved ones to the earth in a way that supports conservation, restores habitat, and allows nature to remain largely undisturbed. Native prairie, forest, and wetlands are cared for not as background scenery, but as part of the memorial itself.
At Wildlands, full-body burials take place using biodegradable caskets or shrouds, without vaults or liners, in keeping with natural burial principles. Families may choose quiet forest resting places, shared memorial family trees, or cremation and aquamation interments within the landscape.
Rather than rows of monuments, Wildlands is designed as a living place of remembrance — shaped by native grasses, birdsong, changing seasons, and walking paths through protected habitat. The intention is not only to create a cemetery, but to preserve and steward land that can remain wild for generations to come.
Wildlands Natural Cemetery operates as a non-profit organization. Revenue from burial and memorial services supports the ongoing protection, restoration, and care of the land itself. This model helps ensure that conservation remains at the heart of every decision, both now and into the future.
We understand that choosing burial and memorial options is personal and sometimes difficult. Our hope is to offer a space that feels peaceful, honest, and grounded in care — for both people and the natural world.
Whether you are planning ahead or navigating a recent loss, you are welcome here.
Meet Our Board
Wildlands Natural Cemetery is guided by a board committed to conservation, compassionate care, and community stewardship. Our board members bring together experience in healthcare, land stewardship, environmental care, and community leadership, helping shape a cemetery that honours both people and the living landscape they return to.
Trishia Penner – Project Lead
Trish Penner is the founder and lead visionary behind Wildlands Natural Cemetery. As a family physician with a deep commitment to compassionate care, community, and the natural world, she created Wildlands from a belief that end-of-life care can be both meaningful and restorative to the land.
Her work has long centered on supporting people through vulnerable and life-changing moments, and Wildlands reflects that same philosophy of gentleness, dignity, and connection. She believes that speaking openly about death and grief is an important part of living well — helping individuals and families approach death with greater honesty, presence, and care. Through Wildlands, she hopes to create space for more compassionate and death-positive conversations within the community.
Wildlands is also rooted in a broader vision of land stewardship and reconciliation. Trish hopes the project can contribute, in a small but meaningful way, to ongoing reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples in Manitoba by sharing the land in a meaningful way, respecting the deep relationship between people and place, and fostering long-term care for the natural world. The intention is for the ecologically important land to remain protected, shared, and thoughtfully stewarded for generations to come.
Wildlands Natural Cemetery 