Grieving families are increasingly turning to scattering the ashes of loved ones in unusual venues around San Diego County.

Cemetery space can be pricey, cultural values are changing and some people simply want to soothe deep loss with ceremonies of their own making.

But casting a loved one's remains to the winds isn't as simple as driving to a favorite park, bluff or desert. Mourners can run into a thicket of regulations enacted by officials who worry that piles of ashes could accumulate at popular public landmarks. Even on private property, people need written permission from the landowner to scatter Grandpa's remains.

Encinitas resident Jan Gugliette honored her parents in a legal but nontraditional way. She kept her father's ashes for 15 years until her mother died this spring, then she paid a company to combine her parents' remains and send them soaring skyward inside a six-foot-high balloon.

"I just thought it would be totally appropriate to put them together in eternity," she said just before she released the red, biodegradable balloon last week.

Mark Jorgensen, the district superintendent at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, sprinkled part of his mother's ashes at Font's Point, which overlooks the colorful Borrego Badlands, an area he sees daily from his office and the front porch of his home.

His choice also is legal, state officials say. But other, equally attractive possibilities aren't.

In California, ashes may be scattered at sea, but they can't be sprinkled along the seashore or a riverbank. They can be spread at some state parks, but not in national forests. And anywhere people decide to scatter ashes, they need a county burial permit and written permission from the property owner.

"You can't just go and toss cremated remains on anyone's property," said Kevin Flanagan, a state Department of Consumer Affairs spokesman, adding that the state regulations are in place because what one person might be comfortable with another might not.

While some may find these restrictions cumbersome, they are much more family-friendly than they used to be, the state reports. A decade ago, relatives couldn't scatter the remains themselves -- they had to pay someone licensed to do the job. And the professionals had limited choices of sea, plane flyovers or the traditional cemetery.

West versus East

Cremation industry statistics indicate that out of the 19,907 deaths registered in San Diego County last year, just under 65 percent of the remains -- or 12,631 -- were cremated, said Stephen Strunk, owner of Accu-Care Cremation. Founded in 1992, his company operates three locations, in Carlsbad, Fullerton and Marysville.

San Diego's cremation rate is dramatically higher than the national average, though the latter is steadily rising.

"You can see those percentages increase year after year," said Caitlin Geraghty, a market researcher with the Cremation Association of North America, a national industry trade group.

In the 1960s, the national rate was below 5 percent. It reached 20 percent in 1994, and preliminary figures for 2005 indicate that it now hovers above 30 percent, the association reports.

It's not surprising that California communities have higher cremation rates than the national average, said Linda Heath, a memorial arrangement counselor with the local cremation offices of the Neptune Society.

Californians are more likely to have moved here, so they probably don't have a local, long-established family burial plot. And -- in keeping with California's reputation as a liberal outpost -- state residents may be more open to alternatives to the traditional burial, she said.

"There's a different mind-set out here on the West Coast," she added. "First of all, property is expensive out here, and you're buying a piece of property (when you purchase a funeral plot)."

Going to sea

People can choose to store a relative's cremated remains at cemeteries and other designated memorial spots, but that isn't the most popular option, cremation industry experts and the San Diego County Health and Human Services agency report.

On the burial permit application that the county's Vital Records Office collects every time someone's remains are processed, the most common statement about what will happen is that the remains will be released "at sea off the coast of San Diego County," said Leslie Ridgeway, who handles media inquiries for the county agency.

The local Neptune Society reports that about 50 percent of its cremation arrangements conclude with ceremonies at sea. Charter boats from both Oceanside and San Diego harbors conduct such events. San Diego's Orion Sailing Charters has been doing it for 19 years.

"It's real personal," said company owner Keith Korporaal, who also captains his two boats. "When you're with the family, you almost feel like you're part of the family."

Korporaal does five to 15 memorial sailings a month, he said. Typically, the deceased had some connection to the sea -- they may have loved sailing, been a great swimmer or just enjoyed going to the beach, he added.

Gugliette, the woman who sent her parents' ashes skyward in a giant balloon, initially looked into burial at sea.

"But I'm the only one in my family who doesn't get seasick," she said.

Picking the perfect park

Sprinkling ashes at sea is relatively straightforward: It should be done at least 500 yards from the shore and not in a lake or a stream, according to county health code regulations. That means, for example, that people can't do it along the banks of Escondido Creek or from the Oceanside Pier.

Distribution by air -- such as Gugliette's balloon launch -- isn't addressed within state regulations. Because it's not prohibited, "it's pretty much OK," said Flanagan, the state Department of Consumer Affairs representative.

Flanagan said recently he had to research whether it was legal for Hunter S. Thompson's family to shoot his cremated remains from a cannon. That ceremony took place in Colorado.

"There's all kinds of strange, odd ways people can dispose of cremated remains," he said.

To sprinkle ashes on the ground, a person must have written permission from the land owner, according to state law. People working in the cremation industry say families typically want to put ashes in places that hold significance for the deceased. Frequently, places of great natural beauty are sought.

In North County, that might be the beaches, the desert or the mountain forests. But people who wish to give their loved ones a send-off in a coastal state park will find their options limited.

"We kind of discourage that," said Denny Stoufer, the sector superintendent for the State Park's coastal region from Torrey Pines through Carlsbad.

That's because these are public recreation areas, not memorial parks, Stoufer said. "Would you like to be swimming in an area where somebody was dumping their ashes?" he asked.

Being open-minded

The only coastal state park in North County that allows ash scattering is Torrey Pines, and only at two spots. People must fill out a park permission form in advance, and their event must occur early in the morning before the popular park fills with visitors, Stoufer said. Typically, the park has one memorial event a month, and Stoufer said he would rather that didn't increase.

"Right now, it's tolerable at Torrey Pines," he said.

Go inland, and the choice of cremation dispersal sites on state park land broadens dramatically.

At Anza Borrego Desert and Palomar Mountain state parks, people can sprinkle ashes as long as they do so in spots that are not Native American cultural sites or burial areas. They're also asked to avoid locations that are blatantly in the public's view or have extensive animal fossil records.

"Aside from those things, we try to be fairly open-minded," said Jorgensen, the inland state parks' superintendent who sprinkled part of his mother's ashes at Anza-Borrego. "We try to make it as pleasant and easy as possible."

Jorgensen said the typical amount of ashes is only a couple of liters and "not that big of a deal when you get down to it."

"I've been involved in many of these little ceremonies, and it seems to be a natural occasion," he said. "It doesn't seem to have the sadness and mourning you have at the grave site."

Anza-Borrego processes about 10 to 12 scattering permit requests a year, he said. And the most popular dispersal spot is Font's Point overlooking the colorful Borrego Badlands -- the same spot where he spread his mother's ashes, Jorgensen said.

Doing it themselves

While inland state park areas are available, the 467,000-acre Cleveland National Forest, which stretches across San Diego County's high country, isn't.

"We don't allow scattering of ashes anymore on the National Forest," said Joan Wynn, who handles public affairs for the forest. "Years and years ago, they used to issue permits for that, but they stopped it probably about 10 years ago."

Cleveland Forest officials didn't make this decision -- it's part of a nationwide policy, she said.

While California's national forest lands now are more restrictive than they used to be, state regulations in general are far more liberal than they were a decade ago.

That's because of a scandal ten years ago that motivated state lawmakers to rewrite the laws governing the distribution of cremated remains, recalled Robert Oakes, a legislative consultant for state Sen. Tom Torlakson.

Torlakson, D-Antioch, led that legislative effort after 5,000 cremated remains were discovered in a storage shed in his district in 1997, Oakes said. The private pilot who had a state license to dispose of the cremated remains dumped them in the shed rather than making the memorial flights he was paid for, Oakes said.

"It's a horrible story and immediately the reaction was: 'We need to do something,' " he added.

Changes included tighter restrictions on people who are paid to conduct ash-distribution businesses, Oakes said.

But the second part of the law has a more wide-ranging effect -- families can now distribute ashes themselves as long as they follow simple guidelines, including getting permission from property owners, he said.

"It's made it just a much different environment," he said.

Jorgensen of Anza-Borrego, for one, is glad.

"To me, the old law restricting the scattering of human ashes 'out to sea' and having to pay a company to deal with your loved one's remains just never made any sense," he said.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

From the San Diego County Health and Safety Codes, Sections 7116,7117

Cremated remains may be scattered in areas where no local prohibition exists and there has been obtained written permission of the property owner or governing agency to scatter on the property. This written permission must be submitted along with the burial permit to the Local Office of Vital Records.

Cremated remains may be scattered at sea. The phrase "at sea" includes the inland navigable waters of this state, exclusive of lakes and streams, provided that no such scattering may take place within 500 yards of the shoreline.

National cremation data

www.cremationassociation.org