Alluvian sat down Herb Engman, environmentalist, former Ithaca town supervisor, and president of the board of trustees of Green Springs Natural Cemetery Preserve to discuss natural burials, non profit environmental organizations, and the origin of his passion for environmentalism.
On environmentalism
“I’ve never became a specialist in anything. I don’t know a lot in depth about nature…I always have been a generalist and I think there’s role for generalist in environmentalism. You can look at the big picture and see things from a little different perspective.”
On the challenges of creating a green burial cemetery
“The town board said,'We don’t want all these hippie type things going on in our town,' and we had to explain this is not a new hippie thing— this is the old-fashioned way of burying people.”
“What was funny was one of the members on the town board who was against the cemetery later became our treasurer. People come around.”
On creating through volunteering
“[Nonprofit environmental organizations] give people an opportunity to sort of follow some of their passions. You might not be on the water resources board, if you weren’t interested in water . . . .It gathers people together who are interested in that arena. . . . .The environmental management council had some of the most talented people in this entire area. There were professors from Cornell and Ithaca College and amateurs who were at least as good as the professors and all these folks who were extremely knowledgable.”
On death
“I think I’m [now] more comfortable with death. At one time I was going to get cremated, but once I got into the green burial movement I realized how cremation puts mercury into the air from the air and uses a lot of fossil fuel to burn the body. I realized that’s not what I want . . . I don’t know how long I’m going to live, [but] I know out here at least I’ll get buried right.”