How Can We Integrate Green Burial With A Conservation Land Trust? An Interview with Joe Sehee

Today SevenPonds speaks with Joe Sehee an advocate for social justice based in Melbourne, Australia. As a Jesuit minister, Joe and his wife Juliette, began their journey by working for an environmental planning firm. About a decade ago, they decided to open a retreat to inspire spiritual healing through nature — this idea ultimately led to the foundation of the Green Burial Council in 2005. He has since stepped down to focus on the preservation of conservation land trusts by incorporating beautiful natural burial sites through a service he recently founded “Conservation Burial.“

Credit: funeralradio.com

Suzette: What was it that led you to your passion for conservation land trusts?

Joe: Moving to Joshua Tree was like being on an extended camping trip. You can’t help but be moved by a landscape. Out of that connection with nature, which I had never before experienced on that level, came a desire to ensure that others have the same opportunity. That led to our coming up with creative strategies to allow this part of the Mojave to remain intact, which eventually made us consider green burial as a potential conservation vehicle.

Suzette: So this was your idea?

Joe: No, I was one of a number of people, I would later discover, who had contemplated the idea of integrating end-of-life rituals with the preservation of land including Billy Campbell, who became a great mentor of mine. At the time, I remember thinking that this idea seemed too good to be true, or at least too obvious not to have been attempted — particularly given the alarming rate at which we’ve been losing habitat and the growing strain on entities tasked with trying to minimize the impact of development and degradation. I also felt like the idea would resonate with the part of the American public that wanted to find a way to transcend the merchandise-based model of “deathcare.” I guess my big contribution was establishing the first independent nonprofit — the Green Burial Council — to set forth standards and set the stage for linkages between the conservation community and the field of funeral service.

Mojave desert
(credit: anothersideoflasvegastours.com)

Suzette: Why do we not see more conservation natural burial grounds?

Joe: Financing, or the lack thereof, has probably been the biggest reason. Only a half dozen conservation burial grounds are in existence. Conventional cemeteries have long faced a similar problem, at least in getting backing from traditional lenders who’ve always known that a burial ground is one of the few types of real estate that can’t be foreclosed upon. Compounding this problem is that a typical cemetery takes about a decade before it becomes profitable, which is even more problematic for investors in conservation burial grounds since a lack of comparable metrics has made it difficult for them to know if a return on investment would prove any better.

Suzette: Has the conservation community been big supporters of this idea?

Joe: Many of us who got involved with conservation burial early on were hopeful that funding issues could be countered by support from land trusts and park service agencies. The idea seemed like such a natural fit for organizations involved in the acquisition and stewardship of natural areas. But buy-in from the conservation community has been tepid at best, due mainly to concerns over getting too closely aligned with a subject as emotionally charged as death as well as with the funeral industry.

Suzette: Is conservation really taking place through burial?

Joe: The aggregate amount of land conservation burial under permanent protection has been somewhat small due to the constraints I mentioned. There’s also been an unwillingness or inability on the part of operators of conservation burial grounds to take out additional acreage while still having burial plots available for sale. Some people like to say that the concept could “save a million acres,” but at the current rate and size at which conservation burial grounds are coming on line, that goal would take nearly 10,000 years to reach.

Suzette: OK, so how do we see conservation land trusts with burial grounds gaining more traction in this country?

Joe: I think we need to eliminate the middleman and allow people to take this matter into their own hands.

Joe Sehee at natural burial grave on conservation land

Suzette: Wow, people taking matters into their own hands. Please describe what you are thinking.

Joe: What might be called “conservation burial 2.0” for lack of a better term would allow individuals/families to create their own private burial grounds on land with conservation value or on acreage situated within at-risk landscapes adjacent to protected natural areas, such as state and national parks. It’s an idea that comes out of a long conversation with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife that began back in 2006. The agency, one of the nation’s most innovative of its kind, was intrigued by the possibility of using burial/scattering as a means of connecting the public to the cause of conservation. They also needed to find new ways of raising money for conservation since they no longer had the budget to purchase additional parkland.

Suzette: So is Texas Parks and Wildlife going through with a conservation burial location?

Joe: Well, after many rounds of discussions with key staffers, commissioners and attorneys, those of us at the center of this exploration came to realize that we might be trying to force a “square peg in a round hole.” Rather than continuing to bump up against issues, such as whether it was appropriate to create ritual space in a park or what if any kind of memorial features might be accommodated, we came to realize it was far easier to find people who would be willing to purchase land bordering their parks. Then after retaining limited interment rights, they would eventually donate their rights back to the park for long-term stewardship.

Joe Sehee had a role in the film “A Will For The Woods” about the green burial movement
(credit: “A Will For the Woods”)

Suzette: So this is a radical new approach then?

Joe: It’s essentially a more ecologically beneficial iteration of the long-held American tradition of “burial on the back forty.” It has an added value for participating families of being able to have a ceremony within a charismatic landscape, some significant tax benefits and usually the possibility for donor acknowledgement/memorialization.

Suzette: What is the “burial on the back forty”?

Joe: It’s just burial on an unused tract of land on a farm or ranch and it’s been quite common in rural communities. Today, most counties still allow for burial on private property of at least five acres.

Suzette: All of this sounds very exciting. So if I have land in the US I wanted to set up as a conservation land trust with a green burial, how do I start?

Joe: Many dots need to get connected in order to make this a viable option. Which is why I’ve recently assembled a team of uniquely skilled professionals (found at conservationburial.com). We’ll assist with everything from identifying suitable parcels based upon one’s financial circumstances, geographic preference and affinity for a particular landscape to effectively engaging financial advisors, family members and funeral service providers, as well as governmental agencies. There’s no shortage of at-risk landscapes in need of stewardship and probably never will be. What we need are people willing to come forward to explore this option.

Suzette: I look forward to seeing more of our land preserved with beautiful integrated end-of-life ritual locations! Thanks Joe for educating us with a wonderful interview and helping point those who want their land set up as a conservation land trust.

Joe: You’re welcome, it was great to chat too!

• Are you unfamiliar with green burial or what is also called natural burial? Read our article to learn more.
• To learn more about Joe Sehee founding the Green Burial Council, you may enjoy reading his first interview.