Cremated remains have a very high sodium content — anywhere from 200 to 2,000 times the amount that plants can handle — and a pH of 11.8, which is two times too alkaline for soil (Lee Webster, New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education and Advocacy). By simply scattering or placing cremated remains around trees, we’re actually harming them — certainly not something a true conservation organization would do!
Unlike this memorial forest, the groundwork for a conservation burial area in the Twin Cities metro area is actively being explored by our local group, Land Conservation Natural Burial. This will be a place that uses natural burial practices — no embalming fluids, no metal/hardwood casket, no concrete burial vault, no quarried granite marker — and current conservation practices to restore and protect the land in partnership with an officially recognized conservation organization.
Instead of using fossil fuels and harming plants, conservation burial sequesters carbon and restores native habitat. Being in nature is powerful, especially when we’re grieving. A conservation burial cemetery provides what people are looking for when they choose Better Place Forests, but it actually employs conservation practices to restore and protect the land that we love enough to choose as a final resting place.
Natural organic reduction (NOR), aka human composting, is also now legal in Minnesota and on the horizon for rolling out in July 2025. With conservation burial and NOR, truly green after-death options are increasingly available for Minnesotans.
Everyone should partake in preplanning and having the important conversations that accompany those plans. To make informed decisions, though, people need correct information. Dear readers, don’t be misled — do the research, ask the questions and get the answers before solidifying your after-death plans. There are greener options out there.
Signatories to this article: Anne Archbold, Jean Buckley, Marilaurice Hemlock, Peg Mahon, Jessica Manning, Linda Ridlehuber, Paul Sommers, Shelley Strohmaier, Alicia Waters, Zac M. Willette, Angela Woosley and Karen Zeleznak.
