Let’s Keep Our Night Sky As Dark As Possible

March 2023  :  Steve Hubbard

Last month I introduced you to the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). 

We all suffer from the effects of light pollution and are often at a loss as to how to combat it. The IDA can help. Go to their website (darksky.org) and you will find a huge amount of resources to help.

In this month’s column, I want to highlight lighting ordinances. There is a link explaining best practices, what to expect and how to go about working with your city or town to accomplish this. (https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/public-policy/lighting-ordinances/)

I encourage all of you to take a look through this and think about whether how you can approach this. In my home town of Auburn MA, I was able to get onto a board that was responsible for the switchover of streetlights to new LED lighting. The process was long, but with someone advocating for the right type of LED lights (color temp of 3000K or less) and shielded lights, we were able to get much better lighting installed than in some of the surrounding towns.  I couldn’t have done this without the resources available from the IDA. 

Fighting bad lighting can be done, but it takes persistence and it takes getting involved as early as possible. 

Please consider at least joining IDA as a member and together we can fight to keep our skies as dark as possible.