More work ahead to protect N.M. night skies
Sixty-odd people met in Socorro in December, with the goal of protecting the night skies for which New Mexico is so famous. They represented a broad variety of interests: tourism, land management, state and national parks, environmentalism, wildlife biology, development of commercial telescope-siting facilities, and astronomy, both professional and amateur.
This was the first statewide meeting of New Mexico DarkSky, the newest chapter of DarkSky International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the night-time environment to benefit wildlife, human health and humanity’s cultural heritage of starry skies. DSI has designated over 200 International Dark Sky Places in 22 countries, including nine in New Mexico. Valles Caldera National Preserve was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2021, and Bandelier National Monument is updating historic light fixtures in order to apply for similar status.
New Mexico’s chapter, formed in June, has a state council of members spread from Los Alamos to Animas in Hidalgo County. The meeting in Socorro was a “stakeholders’ meeting” aimed to assemble a pool of allies with varied interests in preserving dark skies.
In his keynote address, Ruskin Hartley, executive director of DSI, pointed out that New Mexico’s 1999 Night Sky Protection Act has been a guide for other states. By now this law is in sore need of an update, to include modern lighting technology and new understanding of how light affects wildlife and human health. Accordingly, a chief goal of New Mexico DarkSky will be to persuade our state Legislature to update the state law. The allies assembled through the Socorro meeting and subsequent statewide meetings will be key to this effort.
Local lighting ordinances, like the one adopted by the Los Alamos County
Council in December 2022 are even more important than an updated Night Sky Protection Act. Among the lighting ordinances in 33 jurisdictions around New Mexico, most are rudimentary, requiring shielding and adherence to the state ordinance, but without quantitative guidance on illuminance limits, light trespass and colors.
Another goal of our state chapter is therefore to modernize local lighting ordinances. Such work is underway in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and will soon begin in other communities. DarkSky International is developing new templates and models for ordinances, assisted by the Illumination Engineering Society and Clanton Associates, the lighting-design firm that advised Los Alamos and Albuquerque.
Education regarding the deleterious effects of overlighting on human health and wildlife, and promulgation of the five basic principles of outdoor lighting (use light only if it is needed, direct light so it falls only where it is needed, control light so that it is used only when it is needed, use light no brighter than necessary and use warm colors when possible) are focus areas for us.
Elucidating the public safety aspects of artificial light is important for alleviating misunderstandings that present obstacles to the adoption of sensible lighting practices.
Representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, the State Land Office and the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association reported on efforts their agencies make to control their use of lighting in response to environmental and wildlife concerns, by using commonsense measures: shielding and dimming.
Artificial light at night is detrimental to animal species across the globe; skyglow affects navigation, leads to habitat avoidance, alters mating behavior and disturbs predator/prey relationships. Birds die from colliding with brightly lit buildings and suffer from reduced fitness and reduced reproductive success. Insect populations are in decline everywhere, affecting the web of food that all animals, including ourselves, rely on. Some pollinators (e.g. moths) are nocturnal and are distracted by lights on buildings or streets. These concerns were highlighted by delegates from the Audubon Society, the Xerces Society and the New Mexico BioPark.
Professional optical astronomers at Apache Point near Cloudcroft and Magdalena Ridge near Socorro continue to make leading-edge scientific discoveries; the Starfire Optical Range south of Albuquerque, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Fenton Hill Observatory and the White Sands Missile Range also rely on dark skies for their scientific projects and for their national-security missions.
In the private sector, “astronomy villages” have been established in the Sacramento Mountains, in Hidalgo County and in the Pecos mountains. Lots with high-speed internet, technical assistance and lodging are rented out to astronomers from all over the world, who place telescopes that can be operated on-site or remotely. Collectively, these house several hundred telescopes.
In sum, the first stakeholders’ meeting of New Mexico DarkSky was a resounding success, and we look forward to future such meetings that we hope will include other constituencies, including tribal representatives and civic organizations.