Saving Nevada's dark skies - one license plate at a time

Yahoo

01-03-2025

From her home in Baker, Nevada, Elizabeth Woosley can see Andromeda - the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way (152,000 light years away) - with her naked eye. But she's one of the lucky ones as America's dark skies are rapidly disappearing.
Woosley, the owner of the Stargazer Inn in Baker & Great Basin National Park, Nevada, is one of the state's dark sky lovers working to introduce millions of Americans to the importance of our nation's inky skies.
Woosley, who grew up in New England, now lives in Baker, a town of 100 people. Alongside 20 of Baker's 100 residents, Woosley hopes to get dark skies designation for the area to lessen the light pollution from the street, house, business lights and other lighting sources.
There are very few places left in the country where there is so little artificial light that the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye. Nevada is one such place, and to preserve that Woosley is part of a larger group of determined state residents dreaming up novel ways to raise funds to stop their dark skies from disappearing, including promoting "astro-tourism," drives across large swathes of rural land in the dark of night — and even selling license plates.
And after recent federal cuts in National Parks — about 3,400 recently-hired employees with the U.S. Forest Service and 1,000 employees with the National Park Service were fired from their jobs last weekend under the Trump administration, accounting for 10% and 5% of those workforces, respectively — the stakes might be higher than ever.
Most Americans live under light pollution
These Nevada residents plan to save dark skies within their state borders — but also hope to inspire Americans across the nation to protect them. There are several dark sky areas in the United States, the National Park Service says, including in Utah, Texas, New Mexico and Idaho.
In 2019, Dark Sky International designated the first dark sky sanctuary on public land — as Nevada's Massacre Rim. (About 63% of Nevada's land is public.) Critics will say there are only about six truly dark areas, according to NASA maps, and other areas have light pollution.
This matters, proponents say, because more than 80% of the world's population, and 99% of Americans and Europeans, live under sky glow - which causes big problems for humans, wildlife, and the environment. The natural circadian rhythms of humans and animals are disrupted by light pollution and have caused the decline of fireflies, the death of birds during migrations, and sea turtle confusion.
In the U.S., about 19 states have laws limiting light pollution, and Texas has laws governing lights around military bases — but most areas have limited requirements. Dark Sky International says there are about 230 places around the world showing "strong support" for dark skies, and they created an interactive map for users to see if they live in a place impacted by light pollution.
To ease the funding crunch needed to get dark skies designation — which was challenging before the latest federal cuts — local organization Friends of Nevada Wilderness started developing the idea for a "Save Starry Skies" license plate back in 2018. Program manager Pam duPre said it took years to get approval from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. The plates, designed by dark sky advocate Jonathan Boarini, were released in May 2024 for $61 - with $25 going to the Friends of Nevada Wilderness.
About 2,000 plates have been sold and "we expect that number to keep climbing," duPre told CBS News.
Executive Director Shaaron Netherton said the funds will help rural communities get a dark sky designation, like Baker and Gerlach, a small town 100 miles north of Reno and the gateway to the annual festival "Burning Man." Funding will also be used to promote astro-tourism, supporting local efforts to upgrade lighting and infrastructure to attract stargazers.
Dark sky "astro-tourism"
Dave Cooper, a long-time resident of Gerlach and defender of rural tourism and dark skies, like Woosley, has been working to promote "astro-tourism" in their area. Cooper, who retired from the Bureau of Land Management, has been living in rural Nevada for 24 years. The dark skies area in Nevada is "the largest one on the lowest 48," and Cooper is working to develop dark sky tourism and "astro-tourism" in his area.
Gerlach is an unincorporated community, so it is challenging to get all the lighting shields in place and infrastructure needed to keep the skies dark, Cooper says.
Both Cooper and Woosley feel once visitors come to experience the majestic nature of truly dark skies, things will change for the better.
"People don't see dark skies as a resource," said Woosley, adding that dark skies haven't gotten the same attention as parks or beaches.
Woosley said she didn't truly understand the depth of dark skies until she came out West. She was a teacher in Washington D.C. married to a national park ranger for three decades when they moved out to Great Basin National Park in 2018.
The couple lived in the park for a few years before buying Stargazer Inn, opening it on March 4, 2022. About 150,000 visitors a year come to Great Basin National Park.
"We are quite remote," said Woosley, who says the inn is open 11 months a year.
People come to star gaze, take new moon hikes, and see the Milky Way or stars.
"We just fell in love with this place, like instantly," Woosely said. "The quiet, the mountains, the grandeur, the people, the pace of life, everything just felt like…we were meant to be here."
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