Cemeteries as Regenerative Green Infrastructure
By Robert Searns
Seven pallbearers carried Mike’s wicker casket to his final resting place: a pleasant, wooded corner of a cemetery near York, PA. His remains were not embalmed or sealed in an impermeable concrete burial vault; instead, they were wrapped in a shroud. A simple, unengraved stone marks his grave.
This is how my daughter-in-law described the final passage of a favorite uncle. I had met Mike and knew he was that kind of be-in-nature guy who breaks the mold of tradition, even when he departed this world. He was not alone in this approach. This form of “natural internment” is becoming more commonplace with organizations like the Green Burial Council leading the way.
Mike’s story resonated with me, and it provoked a different way of thinking about places of interment. Could we have a broader view of cemeteries — more from a regenerative perspective — as green infrastructure, even as places to recreate? Can we fit together seemingly incompatible land uses for the betterment of our communities overall?
For many, the image of burial grounds conjures rows of headstones, often in a parklike setting. What if some cemeteries could also be parks, or parks could double as cemeteries? Could we picture “memorial” trails and greenways where the graves of loved ones are marked, not with headstones, but with trees? Could we imagine setting aside large open space preserves that are also resting places? These green nodes could be linked by trails with other regional preserves, creating recreational destinations at the city’s edge. To minimize use conflicts, public pathways could run along the edges of these spaces.
Combining cemeteries with parks could expand the potential to set aside more green space. Moreover, with the increasing scarcity of park lands, and in some areas, fewer burial spaces, and tightening financial resources, this unconventional, co-venturing could also make good economic sense.
At first, this comingling of places associated with death and dying with places of recreation and regeneration, even tourism, might seem inappropriate. But the notion of cemeteries as parks is not a new one: in many places, it is already commonplace. According to Aaron Sachs, in his book Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition, as far back as the early 1800’s, groups like the Massachusetts Horticultural Society were advocating for “places of repose for both the living and the dead.” That movement helped create places like Boston’s Mount Auburn, where “people could come and enjoy nature while being exposed to the natural cycles of life.” The Partnership for Public Spaces cites six examples of joint use around the U.S., including the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, which now includes a 35-acre off-leash dog park available through the sale of memberships. (As an interesting side point, some cemeteries are exploring pet burial along with the remains of their human owners.)
There is also a sustainable tourism aspect to combining cemeteries and parks. The Père Lachaise in Paris, where Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are buried, attracts millions of visitors annually. The Recoleta, where Eva Peron rests, is said to be Buenos Aires’ most visited attraction. And Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza, an iconic tourist destination, is in fact a burial ground.
Recently, I walked through several cemeteries in my community near Denver. In the bucolic Crown Hill Memorial Gardens, I saw people gathered around graves, placing flowers or otherwise remembering, while others were strolling, riding bikes, or walking dogs. There seemed to be no conflict. As I looped around the edge of the grounds I spotted numerous points of access, some formal, and some informal cut-throughs to the surrounding neighborhoods. I asked a cemetery manager if that was a problem and he said “no, we actually welcome recreational use of our grounds.” Visiting several other cemeteries, I saw the same thing. A docent at the historic Ft. Logan Cemetery, a sacred military burial ground, told me that “while biking and hiking is technically not permitted, we just look the other way.” Both said conflicts — like a “guy talking loud on a cell phone near a burial ceremony” as one supervisor described it — were rare, minor, and manageable.
Of course, there are some formidable challenges in reconciling burial with recreation. The primary objective of a cemetery is to respectfully inter human remains and provide demarcation, traditionally a headstone, where loved ones return to honor the departed. There is also a sense of the space being sacrosanct.
From the recreational perspective, there are challenges of perception and branding. Cemeteries may seem somber and even spooky, rather than places for joy and playfulness. This may call for some creative design and a bit of re-imagining. When I discussed this notion with Ian Chastagner, a knowledgeable cemetery supervisor, he told me he “loved the idea” of a partnership between cemetery operators and parks and recreation agencies. He could envision mergers not only with parks but with golf courses and even sports fields with “a memorial trail around the edges.”
The next step in pursuing this partnership could be advocating for, and building, some proof-of-concept projects. Landscape architects and planners might find potential client opportunities in this area and certainly the challenge would be interesting. (Coincidentally, my first assignment as a design student was to find a design solution for an overcrowded cemetery.) Projects could involve “green” type memorial parks or the more traditional cemeteries with stone monuments. This process should start by convening cemetery experts and operators. Landscape architects could reach out to organizations like the Green Burial Council as well as community leaders and stakeholders.
Part of the needed change in thinking may grow from envisioning the cycle of life — with death and dying not only as a departure but as integral with regeneration and rebirth. In her essay “From Dirt,” poet and author Camille T. Dungy connects the regeneration of life and sustenance with cycles of decay: “Where there appears to be only dirt,” she writes, “there may be the root system of some kind of insistent thriving.”
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Robert Searns is the author of Beyond Greenways: The Next Step for City Trials and Walking Routes (Island Press, 2023), as well as having served as editor of the Trails and Beyond online magazine of The World Trails Network. Searns has worked as an urban trail and greenways planner and developer for four decades. He was project director of Denver’s Platte River and Mary Carter Greenways — both national-award-wining projects. He helped plan the Grand Canyon National Park Greenway, played a key role on the Memphis Wolf River Greenway, and authored the Commerce City, CO, Walk, Bike, Fit Master Plan.
