With sadness, the Green Burial Society of Canada recognizes the recent death of Louise Bell, a key force in the founding of The Denman Island Natural Burial Cemetery, Canada’s first conservation green burial cemetery.

Louise was a modest and committed environmentalist and advocate of natural burial. From childhood, she loved the natural world, and after moving to Denman Island in the early 1990s, she became passionate about working to protect the natural landscape, including that of her new island home.

Motivated by the need to reduce greenhouse gases and protect the land from toxic materials, Louise saw an opportunity for the Denman Island Cemetery, and the collaborative process that brought it into being, serving a model for other small communities that might want to start their own green burial cemetery.

A true pioneer of natural burial in Canada, Louise Bell is now buried in the beautiful cemetery she worked so diligently to create. Louise Bell | Denman Island Natural Burial Cemetery (dinbc.ca)