Why a green burial cemetery is dividing residents in northeast Minnesota

NINA MOINI: A lot of us have become more concerned about sustainability in recent years. People are buying more organic food and taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. Well, those decisions are also starting to influence how a lot of people think about death. There's a growing interest in green burials, where people are buried without toxic embalming chemicals, and expensive caskets, and burial vaults. But there aren't many places in Minnesota to do it.

So here on the show, on Thursdays, we are featuring the work of our wonderful regional reporters. Today, we're going to chat with reporter Dan Crocker. He had a story out this week about a proposed green cemetery near Duluth, and some of the pushback the proposal has gotten from local residents. He's on the line now to open up his notebook, his reporter's notebook for us a little bit. Hey there, Dan.

DAN CROCKER: Hey, Nina. How's it going?

NINA MOINI: Great. I had not heard a lot about green cemeteries, and I'm curious to more. Just what are they proposing?

DAN CROCKER: Yeah. So-- well, this guy from the Twin Cities area, his name is Matt Connell. He bought about 20 acres in Carleton County, which is near the town of Barnum. It's about 25 miles Southwest of where I am in Duluth. It's an old hayfield that he bought in an area of forests and fields, but there are also several kind of rural homesteads with big lots around his property.

But his vision is to create a natural or a green cemetery. He calls it Loving Earth Memorial Gardens. And so I went out to visit him there. He's cut this winding path through the tall grass, and he plans about 500 gravesites there. He's planted a ton of wildflowers and trees. He plans to build a chapel and meditation spaces. So here he is, Nina, describing a little bit his dream.

MATT CONNELL: We want to create a new type of death care tradition. Not one where you go to grandpa's grave, and kids are bored, and they want to get out of there, and it's spooky, and it's all the things that cemeteries have been known to be. It's much more welcoming. It's a place for people to heal.

DAN CROCKER: So Nina, instead of headstones, burial plots would be marked by trees or blueberry bushes. And then critically, the bodies would not be embalmed with chemicals, and they'd just be wrapped in a cotton shroud, or they'd be placed in a real simple casket. And then families actually could dig the graves themselves. And then there also wouldn't be these big concrete burial vaults underground, which most cemeteries, more conventional cemeteries require.

NINA MOINI: OK, Dan. So how do people in the area, how are they receiving this? Do they have questions?

DAN CROCKER: Yeah, lots of questions. So this is proposed three years ago. There's definitely some support among area residents, but there's been really strong vocal opposition to this idea, ever since Connell brought it forward. I think at first, a lot of the opposition was what one person described as the ick factor.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

DAN CROCKER: People had never heard about this. They were worried about odors. They were worried about pets, maybe wildlife digging up bodies.

NINA MOINI: Oh, my.

DAN CROCKER: Or else. Yeah. There are also concerns about-- yeah, about water quality.

NINA MOINI: Yikes.

DAN CROCKER: But more recently, I've talked to residents, and they say they've learned a lot about green burials since then. Actually, a of them say they're kind of interested and intrigued by them. They just don't think that it should be done in this particular place. They say there's some concerns about the water there, and the soil type, and neighbor opposition there.

But they took their concerns to public officials. And actually, this has become a statewide issue, Nina. Because a couple years ago, the state legislature passed a two year moratorium on any new green cemeteries because of this proposal. They also called for a study from the state health department. And then earlier this year, Carlton County, they passed a one-year moratorium of their own, just before the state one expired.

NINA MOINI: And so my understanding, Dan, is that this has now gone into the legal system, into the courts.

DAN CROCKER: It has. So after that moratorium at the county level, Connell and his business partner, they sued the county. They say that they bought the land. It was already zoned to allow for private religious cemeteries, they say. And they say the county is kind of illegally refusing to allow their project to go forward, and they're arguing that the county has violated their constitutional and their religious rights in blocking it. So they're asking for a jury trial. The county filed a motion to dismiss it. And there was actually the first hearing in that federal case just yesterday.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Tell me a little bit more, too. You were talking about just the state as a whole.

DAN CROCKER: Mm-hmm.

NINA MOINI: Are there cemeteries in the state like what Connell is trying to create? Where does the state stand?

DAN CROCKER: Yeah. So actually, there are not any cemeteries kind of specifically like this one that Connell is trying to build, from the ground up, specifically for these kinds of green or natural burials. I talked to a couple funeral home directors in the Twin Cities, and they do-- they work with families who want this kind of experience, and they work with a handful of cemeteries in the Twin Cities that allow them. But they're already traditional cemeteries, and they just allow them in a specific area, or maybe interspersed throughout.

But there is an effort in the Twin Cities to create what's called a conservation burial ground. It's where they would work with a conservation group to restore some land, and have these green burials as part of that. But that's still in the works. But I should mention, Nina, in the Muslim and Orthodox Jewish faiths, they already practice these traditions-- no embalming, and the bodies are typically buried very quickly. So there are, of course, cemeteries for those faiths, but there's nothing that's public or nondenominational, specifically for these kinds of green burials.

NINA MOINI: What did you hear from funeral home directors? Are they starting to see interest around green burials?

DAN CROCKER: Yeah. They really are. And that's what's really interesting to me. I mean, there's a lot of interest in more environmentally friendly burials, and also, frankly, to save some money, because they can save 20% or 30% by not buying these really expensive caskets, or buying this big, big, big burial vaults. And I actually talked to a guy named Scott Mueller, who's been in the industry for a long time, since the early '80s. And he kind of talked about how it's just changed over the years. He said back then, it was-- his work was almost all kind of conventional, funerals and burials. And now, that's transitioned to 70% cremations.

But there are environmental concerns about cremation, with greenhouse gas emissions and so forth. And he says green burials are not only environmentally friendly, but they also offer this real intimate and meaningful experience for families, real hands-on, and just a real healing experience for them. So he anticipates kind of a slow shift towards them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there, Dan.

DAN CROCKER: Absolutely.

NINA MOINI: Thank you for sharing about that. So when we're doing these check-ins on Thursdays, I'm really loving it, because I am obsessed with all of our regional reporting team. You're like celebrities to me. And so we're wanting to just get to you a little bit. And you know, what struck me about this idea of cemeteries, saying they could be spooky, and just kind of trying to find the right balance for families to have these meaningful experiences. But I got to say, it did make me think a little bit of Halloween. And so I do just-- we're wondering here on the show, what's going on up there for Halloween time in the Duluth area? Anything you like to check out?

DAN CROCKER: Well Nina, I'm glad you asked, because this is actually the 30th year of the haunted ship in Duluth. I don't know if you've heard about this, but this is the William A Irvin-- it's the old ore ship here, The tourist ship that people can tour the big old ore ship that's parked next to the deck, the convention center here.

NINA MOINI: I think I heard a Dan Crocker story about it once, actually.

DAN CROCKER: I've done some stories over the years. So this haunted ship, it's actually been going on 30 years, like I said. And so here's some fun facts about it, Nina, that you'll like. So last year, apparently over 100 people did not make it to the end of the tour because they were so scared, I guess.

NINA MOINI: Oh.

DAN CROCKER: 37 tour takers admitted to peeing their pants.

- [LAUGHS]

DAN CROCKER: It takes 80 pints of blood-- fake blood, I'm assuming-- and 50 actors a night to create the production. And those actors actually go to a scare school where they hone their scare skills. And about 20,000 people visit every year, Nina. And it's running Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Halloween. So you should come up and see if you can stay dry. [CHUCKLES]

NINA MOINI: Maybe I will give that a shot. Wow. What a production. So, speaking of ships, Dan, we're coming up on a very significant anniversary as well, the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald coming up. That's November 10 already.

DAN CROCKER: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: What's going on up there to commemorate that?

DAN CROCKER: Yeah, a couple big things. So there's this annual conference called Gales of November that's held in Duluth every year by the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association. So their event this year is the seventh and the eighth, the weekend before. It's going to feature, obviously, a lot of stuff about the 50th anniversary of the Fitzgerald, including talks by a bunch of authors, kind of about the mystery of the sinking of the ship, and theories about what happened, and about the big storms on Lake Superior, including that one back 50 years ago.

Then Nina, on the anniversary itself on Monday, on November 10, Split Rock Lighthouse up the shore, they're going to be hosting their annual Memorial Beacon Lighting. It's where they read the names of the 29 sailors who died, and they toll the bell. And it's a real-- what I've been told is it's a real emotional event for folks who go. And this year, they're expecting a lot of people, like, 2,000 people. It's at 4:00 on November 10. So they're saying if people want to come, they need to plan on going a few hours early. And there are some shuttles, but that's going to be a real, I think, an emotional experience for folks as they reflect on this tragedy 50 years ago.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Lots going on there in Duluth and the surrounding area. Thanks for checking in with us, Dan.

DAN CROCKER: Anytime, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. Dan Crocker is MPR News Duluth correspondent.