When You Die, You Could Be the 'Whole Forest'

A man who once sold caskets now spends his days helping people return to the ground with as little interference as possible. John Christian Phifer, a former conventional mortician, is the founder of Larkspur Conservation, a nonprofit burial preserve outside Nashville, Tennessee, that offers "natural burials" meant to return bodies directly to the soil—no embalming, caskets, or vaults, as detailed by Atmos.

After 15 years in the traditional funeral industry, Phifer says he became haunted by the idea of people "trapped" in layers of manufactured material instead of rejoining the ecosystems they once depended on. Larkspur, which opened in 2018 on more than 160 acres northwest of Nashville, is set up as both burial ground and conservation site. Families can hike the land, hold ceremonies in the woods, and then lower their loved one—often wrapped only in a cotton shroud—by hand into the grave. Soil is replaced carefully in its original layers, and months later the family returns to plant native species.

Each grave, Phifer says, is treated as a small restoration project, an "island of biodiversity" that slowly helps repair land previously damaged by human use. Phifer frames the work as both climate action and cultural correction in a country where cremation is now used in roughly three-quarters of deaths. He argues that burning bodies or sealing them in vaults wastes biological "goodness" that could rebuild soil, feed native plants, and support wildlife habitat.

Instead of new technology—mushroom coffins, advanced composting—Larkspur leans on old methods: bodies in the ground, protected land above, and minimal disturbance. "We have a tool for cooling the planet right beneath our feet," he says, describing death as a chance to be "the whole forest" rather than a single tree, and to let a final act serve both grieving families and the landscape they leave behind. More here.