This Minnesota forest is a cemetery alternative, part of growing green burial trend

An eagle squawked, woodpeckers pecked and geese honked near Fish Lake as if to welcome Joni Schramm to her special tree.

Schramm purchased the 25-year-old red maple a year ago as the final resting place for the ashes of her beloved husband, Scott, who died of a rare disease in 2022 after 10 years of marriage.

The tree, one of thousands deep inside the 112-acre "Better Place Forests" in Scandia, brings Schramm solace and lets her remember, grieve and smile amid nature's leafy huddle.

"It just feels right," said the Elk River resident, who drove an hour to kneel and place her gifts — a handful of red and gold leaves — in a circle around the engraved brass plate that marks Scott's spot.

The inscription on the plaque reads, "Schramm Family Tree. Established Sept. 30, 2023. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Schramm explained soon after Scott died, his mother, Phyllis, did too, and her cremated remains are also with the tree.

Whenever it's time, Schramm's own ashes — and those of one other family member — will join them at the foot of the tree. She'd never knock a usual funeral, but Schramm said the chance to visit her loved ones every two weeks in an actual forest "has meant the world," even though it means a bit of travel.

The Schramms are among an increasing number of Minnesotans discovering the unique alternative to a traditional burial since the California-based Better Place Forests purchased the private woods from St. Croix Valley locals four years ago.

Since officially opening in 2021, the company has billed itself as Minnesota's first conservation memorial forest for cremated remains. Green burials — a catch-all term often used for environmentally friendly options that forgo caskets, embalming fluid, formaldehyde, metals and other perceived toxins — are poised to double globally from $572 million in 2021 to about $1.2 billion a year by 2030, according to Emergen Research. Better Place alone has grown from 200 tree-buying customers in 2022 to 1,000 total today, with most purchases made for future use.

As options increase — from compressing ashes into a diamond to launching remains into space — competition in the death care industry could go from rare to rabid. In Minnesota alone, Better Place has been a tiny disruptor in an otherwise staid arena. There are roughly 3,000 cemeteries in Minnesota, but none are new.

"You're looking, probably, at over 100 years for many of the cemeteries in the state," said Dominic Pierre, secretary treasurer of the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries. "So they just can't transform their cemetery into a forest to go along with this [green trend]."

Carrie Rowell, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Mortuary Science Program, said Better Place's business model is a "beautiful option" but an "expensive one." The company faces property acquisition costs plus a flurry of regulations that will differ by county. As the business grows, it will also encounter stiffer competition from cemeteries like Roselawn and Resurrection, which now offer shared ash depositories called "columbariums" for clients, she said.

New growth

With a host of new online products, one cheaper burial option and fresh partnerships with 100 funeral homes, death care experts in the state predicted Better Place could double its customer base in three to five years.

To some, scattering flame-cremated ashes in a forest is about as sustainable or "green" as possible without venturing into the rarer (and sometimes controversial) water cremation options. That could be why the company's growth has seemed to accelerate.

"As word is spreading, we are seeing more and more sales over the years," said Better Place Forests General Manager Tori Nonnemacher. "Absolutely, it's a viable business long term. As we look at the world of 'end of life,' we are definitely seeing many more people are choosing cremation. It's more accepted [than it used to be]."

The company did not disclose its revenue, but officials insisted the business is profitable and has prices comparable with traditional funeral or cemetery costs. State law requires traditional cemeteries to put 20% of their proceeds into a trust to insure the grounds are maintained for perpetuity, Pierre said. Better Place also had to create a trust and puts 7% of each sale into it for the same purpose.

Some cemeteries in the Twin Cities charge $1,300 to deposit bagged ashes in a sheltered crypt or columbarium. Some charge $5,300 or more to place urns in the ground. In Scandia, buying a tree that is barely wide enough for a "one-arm hug" will cost an individual $5,900. Buying one of the largest and oldest — a two-arm huggable tree — costs $16,900, Nonnemacher explained while guiding three visitors through the forest on a recent sunny day.

A person can buy a tree for themselves or decide to make it a "family tree," where more than one person's ashes can rest, she said. Each person's ashes — which require their own deposit — mix with dirt at the root of the chosen tree. An engraved medallion marker sits flush with the forest floor and can indicate who lies where.

Chief Operating Officer Ineke van Waardenburg is "most excited" about a new and more affordable burial option launching this month. Instead of buying a tree, Minnesotans can lay cremated remains on the forest floor in a designated "shared grove" surrounded by trees. Better Place will provide families with metal crocks to mix the ashes with composted soil and wildflower seeds so they can scatter the blend on a ground "nest" and water it. The grove will eventually hold many nests.

Better Place hasn't decided on a final price yet, but van Waardenburg said it could approach $2,000.

"This new product is in response to the feedback we got," she said. "People love this idea. People are looking for something a bit more affordable."

Mueller Funeral Home and Cremation in White Bear Lake and St. Paul is marketing the new approach. Several staff members have been so taken with the Better Place idea they've actually purchased trees for their families' eventual resting places.

"We're working with them exclusively as sort of a pilot program for Minnesota on establishing this spreading grove," said Mueller spokeswoman Taelor Johnson. "I have been out there. It's beautiful. ... It's an option for when somebody passes away, and they want to be a part of the forest, but maybe they don't want to invest in [buying] a tree. The idea here is making it a more accessible [and affordable] option for people."

By law in Minnesota, families wishing to deposit ashes on private land must have the owner's permission.

"And if you wanted to do this in a state or national park, you would have to apply for a permit to perform any scattering," Johnson said.

What remains

CEO Sandy Gibson co-founded Better Place Forests in 2015 as a tribute to the parents he lost as a child. He and two co-owners wanted a nature-filled alternative to a cemetery where people could visit departed loved ones. So they bought a private forest and started offering memorial tree sales.

In late 2020, Better Place expanded, buying woods in Arizona and Minnesota. More recently, it entered Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut and now operates nine memorial forests in six states.

"Right now, what we are focused on is providing expanded services to our customers who really need support throughout their end-of-life experience," van Waardenburg said. "These services are launching in the next couple of months and will be available nationwide."

In Minnesota, the new online pre-planning services should help families talk more easily about what they want before it's too late. New video tools will let out-of-town family virtually attend memorial services. And pending interactive tools will let clients memorialize loved ones by posting pictures, stories and messages online, van Waardenburg said.

But even with the virtual tools, there is more work to do on the ground. So far, Better Place has only inventoried and tagged a quarter of its Minnesota trees, a mix of maple, birch, black cherry, bigtooth apsen, oak and ironwood.

That doesn't bother Schramm. To her, Better Place is perfect and just what she wanted.

She loves the 2,500 feet of shoreline on Fish Lake that Scott's tree overlooks. It's also ideal because her mother-in-law loved fishing. The maple tree she chose is symbolic, as it discharges "helicopter whirly seeds" in the spring, and Scott was a medic helicopter pilot.