Body world

Thinking back to the first Earth Day in 1970, Dr. Billy Campbell remembers a high-school teacher saying that when he died, he wanted to be put in a burlap bag and have a tree planted on top of him. “And I just thought that was the coolest thing,” says Campbell, who later studied biology and ecological conservation.

Campbell and his wife, Kimberley, founded Memorial Ecosystems, a green funeral service, and in 1998 opened up a 33-acre parcel of land in South Carolina called Ramsey Creek. There, people can be buried directly in the ground or in a biodegradable container without embalming fluid. But most important, they become part of a protected piece of land that not only their bodies, but their money, help to conserve.

That concept is how the Campbells differentiate the “conservation burials” at Ramsey Creek, the first effort of its kind in the country, from “green burials” (no embalming fluids or underground vaults) offered at some traditional cemeteries, which use chemicals to maintain a manicured landscape. “A contemporary cemetery is basically a place that houses the dead,” Kimberley says. “[But] being buried like this is a very elemental way of giving back to the earth,  and one of the sticks in the bundle that people are buying, is that the land will be kept in its natural state .

The Campbells will travel to talk to the Champaign County chapter of the Funeral Consumers Alliance on Monday 23. The first chapter of the national watchdog group formed in 1939 to pressure funeral directors to keep prices fair, which is still a purpose the group serves. While a burial at Memorial Ecosystems costs about a third of that of traditional burials, FCACC president Grace Schoedel says that’s not why she invited the couple. “When my sister died—she had suffered and suffered from a terrible illness—and when I saw her, I was so appalled…the undertaker made her up, and erased all her suffering. I felt so angry. And that’s when I became interested in a more natural way.”

“[Conservation burial] spiritually appeals to a lot of people because it’s a natural place,  a place of both life and death; it’s not a superficial environment. You can be buried with a tree on top of you where birds come to nest,” Kimberley says.  Though cremated ashes aren’t as ecologically beneficial, the money spent to bury them on a preserve helps maintain the plot.

People from all over the country are buried at Ramsey Creek, and the Campbells have consulted on projects in Ithaca, New York; Glendale, Florida; Marin County, California; and Atlanta, Georgia. But there are no such projects in Illinois. “Cemeteries and funeral directors want to make as much money as they can,” Schoedel says. Another goal of this conservation model is to help landowners realize enough income to put land under permanent easement.

“These spaces definitely need to be used as public spaces…a lot of cities are running out of burial room, and wouldn’t this be a great way to conserve existing green spaces?” says Billy. He adds that Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park after rural cemeteries that also served as a social spaces. Schoedel hopes there’s enough interest from the FCACC board to start looking at creating a preserve in Illinois—possibly on a farm of a former board member 40 miles east of Champaign, which is home to a small burial ground. Billy says that for such a preserve to be successful, there should be a botanical survey done. “We have saprophytic orchids at Ramsey Creek, and if you move them, you’ll kill them. But if you know where they are, you don’t bury people there.” Ramsey Creek is open from sunup to sundown, and hosts bird-watching and wildflower enthusiasts. “We definitely want more weddings and babies than funerals,” Billy says.

Graves are dug with shovels, and loved ones are invited to take part. “Sometimes people will stroll through the preserve while the grave is covered and then come back and plant flowers,” Kimberley says. Most of the 80 graves have headstones, but “the whole 33 acres is a monument to the people who are buried there.”

For more info, visit memorialecosystems.com.