Welcome back to the poor prozomenack.

This is Andy.

And today we're joined by Walt Patrick from the Hurlund Forest, a nonprofit organization

based in Washington State that focuses on ecologically grounded death care services.

This includes things like natural burial and various processes around human composting.

So we talk about what this looks like in practice, how people have engaged with it, and what

the future of natural burials looks like, and where it fits into a greater global context.

So this is a really dark but important conversation to have, and I think you're going to get a lot

out of it.

For folks on the West Coast in the area, go check out what they're doing.

They're looking for some support with their board of directors.

It could be a great opportunity to give back.

So let's jump in.

Well, thanks so much for joining us.

So you represent the Harlan Forest Natural Burial Cemetery.

So tell me a little bit about where this came from. I joined this organization back in

1973. It kind of grew out of a Vietnam War protest. And the principals who are with the

organization then have all passed on. So the concept of that needing to deal

with the death of our principles goes deep in our organization. And in Washington State,

you may not be buried on your own land, which was a very frustrating thing to us, because we

acquired this property in 85 and put a lot of heart and effort

into pursuing this concept of how do you feed, fuel, and clothe people on marginal land.

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