Member Spotlight: Becky Hoffbauer, Co-founder of Back to Ground Conservation Burial Cemetery

What's your name & your Start Up Conservation Cemetery:
Becky Hoffbauer, Co-Founder of Back to Ground Conservation Burial Cemetery

How and why did your organization form? What is your origin story?
After a tour of a new 200-acre preserve and a chance conversation with the Executive Director of Bur Oak Land Trust, I asked him whether Bur Oak had ever considered a natural burial cemetery. Jason's own personal interest hadn't been shared with his Board up to that point, but we scheduled more conversations. He started having some talks with his staff, and I started looking for others in the community who might be interested in doing something about it. This led me to Jeffery Ford, who had previously (and unbeknownst to me) already had such a conversation with a local funeral home, as well as with an earlier iteration of Bur Oak's board. The idea didn't get any traction at that time, but after Jeffery agreed to meet with me, we began building our group, having community conversations, and growing more and more passionate about the possibility of a conservation project with a natural burial cemetery.

What has the response been like in your community? What kind of steps are you taking to educate and inform people about conservation burial?
Back to Ground has tabled at an annual event that Bur Oak hosts, called Prairie Preview, to showcase regional ecological organizations, and has given educational public talks at our Senior Center, local churches, and college classes. People are very interested and really delve in with their questions. The merely curious are far outnumbered by those who want to hear more and sign up for our newsletters to keep informed about future events.

What have been the most challenging obstacles during the start-up process?
Having enough hours to do the outreach that we really need to broaden. As a start-up, of course, we're all volunteers with jobs, families, and other work in our lives. We also need to find a savvy fundraiser for our board!

What draws you personally to this work?
I am a proverbial nature lover. As a kid, I spent more hours outdoors than in, and have always appreciated the artistry of this shining water planet. My mom helped me plunge my hands into the soil, and my own natural curiosity filled my pockets with rocks, shells, twigs, leaves, bones, seeds, bugs, and on and on. My Mom and reading National Geographic magazines taught me the conservation ethos that already lived in my heart. Though I have a winter soul, all the cycles of the seasons and the natural circle of Life and Death have always called to me, and 6 years ago, I became a Death Midwife. With 8+ billion humans on the planet, conservation burial is the only disposition option that gives back to the earth a portion of what my lifetime has consumed. To me, it is the only means to return my body to the natural circle and cycles of nature, and at the same time lend it to the conservation of land that my community can appreciate, enjoy, and learn from their own role and portion in the great cosmic wheel as it plays out on earth. For my body to become food for flora and fauna is as exciting as the adventure I can only imagine for my spirit after leaving my body behind.