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August 2024: Checking the Box!, Light Pollution News.

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Well, there’s a backlash – a brewin!

We drove up to Vermont to visit my in-laws during the Fourth, and my father-in-law told me that the town was considering an end to fireworks….for the reason that it polluted the waterways….

Now mind you, this is Vermont which happens to be the only state east of the Mississippi that’s to the left of California. But I had never heard of this before! However, there’s some merit! Per an article written by Erin Blakemore for National Geographic, fireworks pump “large amounts of heavy metals into the air, soil, and water.”….something that might explain some of the crazy behaviors of the people of my city, where the residents begin their Fourth of July celebration sometime in late May.   

Obviously, there’s a light pollution aspect to fireworks, but there are also other problems. Fireworks come packed with the physical trauma of explosions, which creates stress for animals, including household pets, and stress for our service members suffering from shell shock. And of course, our listeners from out west are probably all too acquainted with firework caused wildfires.

So…what’s the solution? Well, the going solution seems to be these drone shows. We’ve spoken about drone shows before, namely involving Dollywood and Disney World. Drone shows appear to be taking off. I know that when the Eagles clinched their spot for the Super Bowl a couple of years back, we had a drone show of an eagle flying above the Art Museum.

In honor of the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, the Normandy Beach landings that started to turn the tide against the Nazis in World War II, a brilliant drone show featuring a World War II fighter jet, a paratrooper, and a battleship took place in Portsmouth, England, don’t mind the hideous armada of searchlights in the distance.

However, drone shows in the US almost got dealt a near fatal blow! And that’s not because of a firecracker lobby. No, the US House of Representatives contemplated banning the Chinse company, DJI – the world’s primary manufacturer who owns 58% market share in the US. The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act, presumably on feedback from various user groups, including first responders and small businesses, removed mention of the DJI ban, thus staving off the action.

From a light pollution standpoint, in with the new and out with the old – either way it doesn’t change the fact that both clutter the night sky.

As I’m sure you at home are aware, here in Pennsylvania, we have a unique state park – it’s a dark sky park, probably like no other dark sky area’s park. I can’t stress how lucky we are to have a park like this.

At Cherry Springs, you have an observing field complete with electrical hookups to keep you observing well throughout the night – no sanctioned use of white light anywhere on the field (which you are locked into until sunrise). The lighting of all facilities utilizes red shielding. And it’s a park that’s been reconfigured for and by amateur astronomers, not casual campers or glampers.  It’s a literal “astronomy park.”

Cherry Springs brings an estimated 85,000 – 90,000 visitors to the relatively quiet northern tier, Potter County. There’s now a community an hour west of Potter County that is looking to recreate some of that magic.

Officials in nearby Cameron County are eyeing up new uses for a “reclaimed landfill and strip mine” site. The community is weighing whether they’d want to go down this path and pursue a dark sky designation. To do that, they’d need to slow down the growing trend of increased light pollution in the overall dual-county area.

For the Pennsylvania Wilds, which these two areas are considered part of, starry skies are a key part of the summer economy. However, the wide open beauty of the land has been attracting development, which includes increased light contamination from new residents’ exterior fixtures. 

And the potential site has more than just challenges from unshielded lighting. Pennsylvania’s successful population of reintroduced elk is also a resource to be protected, bringing in sizable amounts of tourism and hunting revenue.

And of course…this would be a new observing field…on a landfill. So that means any facilities put in place need to be light on the land, as they won’t be able to excavate too deeply.

Staying on this theme for a bit…

Down in those brilliant southern night skies, Linda and Travis Nadge, a husband and wife team, started a small business, Outback Astronomy, in the community of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

The business is actually quite neat! For a fee, you can indulge in a curated night sky (or solar) tour. In addition, they offer upgrades including hot chocolate or comfortable seating. This all actually sounds like a pretty fun thing to check out should you ever been in that part of the world.

In the same town, historically known as “Silver City,” sit some of the richest lead-zinc-silver deposits in the whole world. The mining heritage is what created Broken Hill.

Nowadays, Broken Hill is looking for a new boom business, and it believes it found this in renewables.  Broken Hill courted Hydrostor, a Canadian energy company that plans to use an old mine site to store 200 megawatts of energy in the form of compressed air. The idea is to essentially create an underground battery that would offset wind energy turbines when not in use.

However, the construction for this battery is creating problems for the Nadges astrotourism business. It contributes mightily to light pollution and, essentially, eliminates the façade of the romantic stargazing experience thanks to 24/7 construction.

Despite early communication between both parties, it appears that the Nadge family feels quite slighted and is considering bringing forth legal action.

Per the Mayor of Broken Hill, “I support the project with the understanding that it can have an impact on that business and I do hope that they sort it out. But for me, as mayor, I have to do what I believe is good for the entire city.”

Let’s talk landscape lighting!

First up, out by the ocean on the far end of Long Island, is East Hampton, New York, where the community’s public safety and code enforcement officer, Kevin Cooper, has a bone to pick with the aesthetic blight of landscape light.

Per Cooper, “They’re lighting everything that’s green – new builds, it’s just ridiculous!”

Current ordinances permit 1000 lumen up lighting on trees that must be turned off by midnight. A proposal would reduce that to 600 lumens with a turn off at 11 pm. Pathway and foliage lighting would follow a similar rule.

Why?  Well, it might be because the enforcement team goes to bed at 11 pm, so therefore they wouldn’t be able to respond to complaints thereafter.

Over on the north side of the island, however, nights are not so dark apparently. An editorial in Riverhead Local rips apart the government of Riverhead for allowing new businesses to not just skirt starry sky ordinances, but to also validate violations through variances.

Per the article, “Since that behemoth opened up almost 20 years ago, we haven’t been able to sit in our backyard, look up at the sky and enjoy a starry night. That’s how much light Riverhead Centre (the commercial strip mall in question) gives off. It seems to illuminate the sky above about as much as it illuminates the asphalt and cement below.”

Riverhead’s Dark Sky ordinance came into effect in 2008 and required existing builds to be in complaint by 2017, which Riverhead Centre bucked.

Since we’re talking landscape lighting, it’s rare that I personally ever see any good articles guiding homeowners on how to responsibly light their yard. This month, I came across, count them…two articles on proper installation of landscape lighting that paid special attention to either the plight of the ecology (insects) or light trespass.

First, this month, from Birmingham Live, an article directs homeowners who use landscape lighting to do the following:

• Keep lights aimed downward.
• Use hoods/shielding where possible
• Turn off garden lights when not in use.
• Use low-intensity, warm lighting.

 And…

• Encourage local councils to adopt switch-off schemes for street lighting…ok that last piece is pie in the sky, but I like the enthusiasm!

And then we have this next article out of Homes and Gardens, where they “spoke to a legal expert about where you can place your lights to say on the right side of the law!”

When asked, “Can my light shine into the neighbor’s yard?” Derek Jacques, an attorney from Detroit, states, “most local ordinances require lights to be mounted at lower heights, typically limited at the roof level of your home, but no higher.’”

Continuing, “As long as you have made reasonable adjustments to prevent light trespass, the law is probably on your side if your neighbor complains about your lighting.”

Jacques goes on to discuss other common sense lighting practices to reduce your impact on your neighbors in the article.

Before we wrap up the first half of today’s show, we have some designations to review.

Congrats to Bruneau Dunes, Idaho becoming that state’s third International Dark Sky Park. And Ovre Pasvik National Park [UR-VREH PAHS-VIK]on becoming an International Dark Sky Place!  Oh, and the land down under’s Palm Beach on the North Side of Sydney becomes Australia’s first urban dark sky place!

But wait, there’s more!

The Dedham Vale Dark Sky Campaign group over in the UK recognized two heroes in their inaugural award. Boxted Village councillor, Angela McLaughlan, and the council clerk, Karen Thompson, were recognized for their role in installing ecologically responsible lighting that included “lower-brightness and warm-colored temperature” LEDs facing downward to provide parking lot visibility. The fixtures are also equipped with 10 minute timers that switch off automatically when not being used.