INPERSON
Green Cemeteries
Penn Forest is part of a growing trend .
by Paul Glasser
Penn Forest Natural Burial Park co-owners Pete McQuillin and Nancy Chubb with their living “ grass cutters .”
Since opening in 2011 , Penn Forest Natural Burial Park has become a center for green and sustainable projects in the Penn Hills area .
“ Burials are just part of what we do ,” says coowner Pete McQuillin . “ Penn Forest is a place for living — not a place for dying .”
McQuillin and co-owner Nancy Chubb opened Penn Forest as a green cemetery five years ago , but they have also launched a number of other projects in the last several years , including an attempt to restore natural Pennsylvania meadows and grow hydroponic crops . McQuillin and Chubb have 32 acres near the Penn Hills Community Park but so far only two and a half acres have been set aside for burial plots .
“ We want to be a resource for the community ,” McQuillin says . “ We want to be a place for people to come out and try their ideas . We have all this land and wanted to make use of it . A lot of people present ideas to me and I always try to say yes .”
McQuillin ’ s interest in sustainability began during his previous career as a packaging engineer . He helped design returnable packaging products that were environmentally friendly . Unfortunately , he was laid off , but eventually decided to open Penn Forest because the nearest green cemetery was in Ithaca , NY . Although other local cemeteries offer green burial sections , Penn Forest is the only cemetery in Pennsylvania to be certified by the Green Burial Council , which sets national standards .
“ I didn ’ t want another job — I wanted something more fun ,” McQuillin said .
He and Chubb were interested in green burials on a personal level before they decided to open Penn Forest . Being interred at Penn Forest means that everything used in the burial is environmentally friendly and will decompose . For instance , no embalming fluids are employed and most of the burials use a simple cloth shroud . If a coffin is utilized then it is built without nails , and grave markers are made from native stone or wood .
“ Death becomes a part of restoring the land and the earth they came out of ,” Chubb says . “ It offers a sense of being one with nature .”
Chubb says green burials tend to be cheaper than traditional burials because there ’ s no need for a concrete burial vault and a cloth shroud is far less expensive than a coffin .
Penn Forest has space for about 1,400 plots , and individuals from Pennsylvania as well as Ohio , Maryland and West Virginia have purchased space at Penn Forest . The cemetery
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