Fear of Death, and Misinformation vs. Green Burial

The seeds were planted a decade ago; Peter Quakenbush, who owns Michigan Burial with his wife Annica, read Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich. “It is a fantastic book about animal undertakers and the animal way of death. At the end, Heinrich considers his own death and describes wishes for a green burial on his land in Maine,” he tells the Order. A few years later, he read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, a forester in Germany; among the forests he manages is an ancient Beech forest. In the book, he writes about how the forest would be more valuable if it was left standing and used as a burial ground, than if it was leveled for timber.

“This is only a small part of the book, but it really grabbed my interest, he says. “I remember thinking about it all day while I hiked up and down a mountain that I climbed weekly at the time. I love how it is a way for an existing ecosystem to generate an income and pay for its own protection and restoration.

It is a perfect win-win.”

Today, that spark of inspiration is a 20 acre piece of land in Newaygo, Michigan; an aspirational burial ground currently the center of a legal battle between town officials and the Quakenbushes.

Their vision for the land is simple and revolutionary at the same time; to provide the state with its first conservation burial ground, which is a type of cemetery where the land is preserved in its natural state. “The forest floor is covered in a blanket of bright green sedges and fallen logs covered in lush moss,” says Annica. “Blue-green lichen is on the trees, mushrooms peek out of the ground, native wildflowers cover the ground in spring, and you can always hear a chorus of birds chirping. It is a really special forest, and we have loved it since the moment we saw it.”

Green burials are not new; far from it. In the United States, embalming the dead became common practice during the Civil War, when soldiers who died away from home needed their bodies to be preserved on the journey back. Enter: embalming. But prior to the war, most American funerals involved a green burial, and the practice remains a mainstay in many cultures and religions to this day. Misinformation, fear, and stigma abound in the deathcare world and the concept of a green burial can feel obtuse to a society that is accustomed to  practices like embalming and silk lined caskets – but what defines a green burial is actually very simple. It involves burying the dead directly into the earth in an organic material; this can be anything from a linen shroud to a more elaborate wicker coffin.

“The forest floor is covered in a blanket of bright green sedges and fallen logs covered in lush moss,” says Annica. “Blue-green lichen is on the trees, mushrooms peek out of the ground, native wildflowers cover the ground in spring, and you can always hear a chorus of birds chirping.”

Peter, who is preparing to defend his dissertation in Biology, used his clinical knowledge of the subject and his passion for plants and the earth to ensure their conservation burial ground found a perfect home – the property sits at a high elevation with a dry climate, and has been covered in native forestry for over 100 years. Once they found and purchased the land, they undertook every logistical, scientific, and ethical precaution to bring their vision to life; more than that, the town was excited – reception for a new and eco-friendly way to bury their dead was largely positive.

But the Township Board had other plans. To halt the Quakenbushes from proceeding with the development of the Michigan Green Cemetery, the board passed an ordinance banning not only conservation burial grounds, but the development of all new cemeteries in the township.

This is unconstitutional, says the Institute for Justice, who are representing the Quakenbushes in their case.

“Put simply, the Quakenbushes own their own land and should be able to use it to operate a conservation burial ground that meets (and even exceeds) health and safety standards,” says Katrin Marquez; attorney at the Institute for Justice, one of the attorneys representing Peter and Annica and their business in Quakenbush et al. v. Brooks Township et al. “There is no legitimate legal basis for the ban,” says Marquez. “Peter and Annica have done everything right and the Township’s ban violates the Quakenbushes’ rights. Peter and Annica’s property rights and economic liberty rights—the right of individuals to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference—are at stake in this case. Put simply, the government can’t use targeted zoning to ban Peter and Annica—or anyone else—from engaging in a safe, productive, and otherwise appropriate occupation. And that’s exactly what Brooks Township is doing here.”

This case, she says, implicates a number of fundamental constitutional protections. The current lawsuit focuses primarily on property rights and economic liberty; Peter and Annica have a right to use their property as they see fit, and operate an occupation that is not harmful to the public. Furthermore, the Michigan Constitution doesn’t even allow a municipality to ban safe land use simply because it’s misunderstood, which is exactly what’s happening here.

Beyond that, the way we care for and bury our dead has deep personal, cultural, and religious ties that implicate even more constitutional protections. “The equivalent of green burials, for example, is required by some religions—including Judaism and Islam,” says Marquez. This case even touches First Amendment protections on freedom of speech, and Marquez says the Institute for Justice is seeing increased litigation surrounding end of life doulas. “Governments are trying to silence end-of-life doulas, in violation of their free speech rights, in order to create more business for funeral directors,” she says. “In various states we’ve seen governments require people that just want to encourage others to engage in uncomfortable but important conversations about death to get funeral director licenses. But these requirements make no sense. They’d force someone to do things like attend mortuary school to study embalming, anatomy, and chemistry; embalm dozens of remains; work as an intern at a funeral home for a year; and build or purchase a full-service funeral—all just to talk about death.”

The way we bury our dead is already, not without legal protections – though they’re perhaps not commonly known or understood, thanks to widespread stigma that shrouds conversations about death and funerary care. “For example, most places allow backyard burials for family,” says Marquez. “And practices like home funerals—where a family hosts a funeral in a private home with the deceased loved one lying in honor—are resurging in popularity. Another example is that no state requires a casket for burial. That said, facilities like cemeteries or crematoriums are subject to local zoning and state regulations.”

At the heart of the Township’s opposition to the burial ground is, without equivocation: misinformation. “It has largely been fear and misunderstanding that have informed opposition to our plan,” says Annica. “There has been unfounded fear about water contamination, toxic human remains, murderers dumping bodies in the woods, animals digging up graves, cemetery neglect leading to bodies falling out of a mausoleum, lots of cars driving around in the woods…we’ve heard it all.”

The Quakenbushes have gone above and beyond to ensure their the plans for their conservation burial grounds exceed all the requisite public health and safety regulations Marquez says; they’ve received approval from the local health department and have even taken the additional step of studying the Green Burial Council’s publications, taken GBC’s courses and reached out to them to verify their requirements for certification once the burial ground is open.

For their part, in a statement, the Green Burial Council agrees that what the Quakenbushes are trying to do should not only be perfectly legal, but is in line with how we have been caring for our dead for centuries – and how people increasingly want to engage with deathcare.

“Natural burial has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years,” says Rachel Essig the Green Burial Council, Board Treasurer who has been a cemeterian for 16 years, “and green or natural burials are what people want.”

“I believe, unfortunately, that many people are so turned off by the natural cycle of life in death that they lose sight of thinking holistically, critically and scientifically about natural burial practices.”

Increasingly, she has seen an interest in green burial options over the last five years and more and more death care providers are offering alternatives, many within a religious framework. That hasn’t stopped pushback from local and state governments who she says often have a “knee jerk” reaction to the proposition of green burial.

“I believe, unfortunately, that many people are so turned off by the natural cycle of life in death that they lose sight of thinking holistically, critically and scientifically about natural burial practices,” she says.

Green cemeteries are not new or even uncommon – not even in Michigan. But neither is pushback to the practice; just last year Minnesota placed a ban on new green burials. What is especially startling about the Quakenbushes’ case is the scope of the ban. It would impact all prospective cemeteries in the area, illustrating how far removed from reality these lawmakers are from the reality of deathcare. “Look at your community, imagine all your neighbors: will they fit in the existing cemetery? Will their children, their children’s children fit in your local cemetery? Are there enough grave spaces? Are your local jurisdictions working to ensure the ratio of residents to final disposition options are proportionate?” says Essig. “This is a public health question. A green cemetery is not only a public health answer but it’s also an environmental solution – anywhere in the US.”

“[Green burial] helps us face the reality of our mortality and invites meaningful participation in the burial process. It helps us see how we fit into the bigger picture, one where life goes on and we play our part. It creates sacred spaces in nature, where humans are a part of nature, not apart from nature.”

It’s certainly a complexity that Peter and Annica have appreciated in their thoughtful and careful planning of this. “Death is a touchy subject that can easily become emotionally charged,” says Peter. “There is an established industry used to doing things a certain way and used to making a living a certain way. Change is hard and the uncertainty is scary.”

They also see the Michigan Green Cemetery as part of a larger, greener future in death care; for the Quakenbushes, that means the hope of more people being able to access at home death care – more autonomy in how loved ones care for their dead so their practices are in alignment with their wishes and beliefs. “Of course we think conservation burial should play a big role in this vision. It celebrates life, even protects it,” says Peter. “It helps us face the reality of our mortality and invites meaningful participation in the burial process. It helps us see how we fit into the bigger picture, one where life goes on and we play our part. It creates sacred spaces in nature, where humans are a part of nature, not apart from nature.

It is a beautiful picture of harmony, balance, belonging, and long-term thinking.”