According to the Green Burial Council, “A green burial (or natural burial) is an eco-friendly funeral practice designed to allow a body to decompose naturally and return to the earth, minimizing environmental impact. It prohibits embalming, concrete vaults, and non-biodegradable materials, instead using biodegradable shrouds or caskets. These burials often support land conservation.”

Green burials aren’t a new concept. In fact, that’s how humans buried their dead for generations and how some cultures still do today.

Town of River Falls Cemetery Committee Chair Jerome Rodewald said he has been approached by several people with questions and interest about green burials being allowed at Glass Valley Cemetery, located on County Road E just south of River Falls.

“We are moving forward with allowing greener burials,” Rodewald said. “We changed our rules in the township to allow them without the concrete vault. Typically, cemetery management wants a vault, otherwise the casket or corpse can degrade. You have to keep refilling the burial site. At Glass Valley, we charge a little bit extra to pay for the black dirt that has to be brought in, rather than the $2,500 needed for a bottom of the barrel vault.”

Glass Valley Cemetery is owned and operated by the township, with a cemetery committee that makes recommendations to the town board. The cemetery was founded in 1863; five Civil War veterans are buried there, including a freed slave who was unmarried without children who worked for local farmers. The township bought 30 plots at 50 cents apiece, Rodewald said. Lots were sold in 10-lot groupings, so a family plot was about $5, or one week’s work.

Rodewald said the cemetery was designed to have 720 lots, but the lots were smaller back then because people weren’t using concrete vaults in which to place caskets. The cemetery committee has updated the lot sizes, so now the cemetery holds about 640 plots.

“Some of those lots were sold more than 100 years ago,” Rodewald said. “We use ground penetrating radar to make sure we’re not digging up someone’s grave. They are marked as sold but not used.”

Rodewald has chaired the cemetery committee for the past 14 years. The local Town & Country 4-H Club has maintained the cemetery since the late 1950s.

“There are several generations of kids who have grown up and worked there,” Rodewald said. “In 1957 or ’58, the town burned if off, the tall weeds and sumac had grown wild out there. They were careful not to harm the stones. I was an assistant leader at the time, too old to be a 4-H member. I was in charge of the mowers and things.”

The town agreed to take over Glass Valley Cemetery in 1948. The 4-H club approached the town and said they would volunteer to take care of it.  

Rodewald said several people are quite pleased that Glass Valley no longer requires vaults.

“We sold two lots that we would not have sold,” Rodewald said. “People are desiring that option and we also had a Jewish burial there that required it. The family was very pleased that we allowed a Jewish burial out there.”

Rodewald said he’s noticed many more people are doing cremations these days. He’s curious to see if the green burial concept will grow in popularity.

“The good thing about the cemetery committee, is that as we work with funeral directors and when we see change coming, we can work with them and react to it,” Rodewald said.

What is a green burial?

For a green burial, embalming is not performed. “Embalming is the process of chemically altering the body to delay decomposition, improve aesthetics, and to improve sanitation with the use of toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde: a known carcinogen- posing risks to worker health,” according to the Green Burial Council. The website states that embalming is rarely required by law and is never legally necessary for viewing a body.

“Some funeral homes may have their own rules that require embalming for public visitation, but you always have the right to ask and explore other options,” according to the website. “Natural decomposition is a safe, essential part of life’s cycle. Our bodies already contain the bacteria needed to return to the Earth in a way that benefits the Earth. The human body is not inherently harmful, and embalming is not required to protect public health.”

Embalming has been used to help the body look more natural for viewing; however, people can care for the body with respect in other ways, such as washing, dressing or keeping the body cooled prior to viewing.

For a burial to be fully green, any containers used must be biodegradable with no burial vault. People can use a biodegradable casket, shroud, urn or pouch made of biodegradable materials. This allows for the container and body to return to the earth naturally. Embalming would not be allowed because then chemicals would leach into the earth.

Cemeteries exist across the country (near Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin) that are just green cemeteries. Often, markers aren’t used in these cemeteries, though GPS markers are documented to show where remains are buried. The goal is for the place to look as natural as possible. Some conventional cemeteries may also allow for green burials, marked with a traditional headstone, but it varies per cemetery on what is allowed.

Glass Valley no longer requires remains (in a casket or urn) to be placed in concrete or metal vaults, which makes a burial greener but not fully green.

Mt. Zion Cemetery

Mt. Zion Cemetery, located off 730^th Street in the town of River Falls south of Gehl Buffalo Farm, is an overgrown landlocked cemetery owned by the township. It began as a cemetery for the Robey family and their neighbors. The oldest grave there belongs to Rev. W. H. Robey, a member of the Brethren Church who died in 1881, several of his adult children and neighbors’ infant children, including four belonging to the Patterson family.

Rodewald’s interest in the cemetery became renewed when the great grandson of Sylvester Eastman, who is buried there, contacted him about finding the grave. The cemetery is heavily wooded.

“This would be an ideal spot for a green burial cemetery,” Rodewald said. “We would not knock down trees and a 12-inch urn would work just fine. An urn could be made of biodegradable material.”

While some green burials don’t even want a marker, to make the area as natural as possible, Rodewald’s personal belief is that it should be marked in some way, so the grave is not disturbed. For example, at Glass Valley, they currently require urns for cremation (but not vaults).

“We have been asked why,” Rodewald said. “That’s a good question. It’s because I want some marking where that grave is. I don’t want somebody else digging that grave up. Right now, we’re burying an 18-inch round steel rod next to urns so I can go with a magnetic thing and find where it is because they are in a 2-5-foot area where they can be buried in an urn.”

The township is currently researching access to Mt. Zion Cemetery, which would require an easement through private property. An old road leading to it may not have been formally abandoned, so access may be available that way.

Regardless, before fully green burials would be allowed at Mt. Zion (or Glass Valley), the access needs to be resolved and the cemetery committee would need to make a recommendation to the town board, which would trigger a public hearing.