The Marin County Fire Department will remove and dim several lights around the Point Reyes Station firehouse, the latest win by the local village association to make West Marin a dark sky reserve. Though the area is likely several years away from earning the designation, the changes will have an immediate impact and are a step toward reducing light pollution, said Steve Antonaros, the association’s president.
“The fire department is being a great exemplar in helping us convince the International Dark-Sky Association,” he said. “Sometimes these solutions are super simple and cost $20 for a shield. Others are more complicated and have to be approached at the right time, when construction is already happening.”
Members of a Point Reyes Station Village Association task force approached Marin County Fire Department Senior Captain Ben Ghisletta about minimizing the station’s lighting almost two years ago.
When remodeling work started at the firehouse last fall, Capt. Ghisletta said they needed some lighting for safety reasons but could add a switch to the outdoor flood lights and ensure the lights on the perimeter of the building were low voltage.
“Reflecting back now, those lights were probably excessive,” Capt. Ghisletta said. “We recognize and support the movement of the community and just want to be a good neighbor while achieving our primary mission of public safety.”
The push to become a dark sky reserve started in the hands of Point Reyes Station residents who wished to see their town return to darkness so the night sky and wildlife could be spared excessive light pollution. The initiative was buoyed by the National Park Service, which shared the goal of dark skies and offered to apply for the permit while the task force worked with local establishments to dim their lights.
A dark-sky reserve designation consists of two regions: a core area that meets criteria such as the ability to view the Milky Way with an unaided eye, and a peripheral area that supports dark-sky values. In that zone, 80 percent of lighting must meet dark-sky standards.
Local organizers have proposed the seashore as the core and all West Marin, excluding Muir Beach, which is exposed by San Francisco’s glow, as the peripheral area. The reserve designation requires a minimum of 173,000 acres. For comparison, the seashore is 71,000 acres; West Marin is 250,000 acres.
The park service is looking into ways to make the reserve possible. Christine Beekman, a spokeswoman for the park, said that between the youth hostel, park service and Coast Guard services, and ranches, there are roughly 1,200 lights. Most of the light fixtures are on ranches, but task force members like Peggy Day are sympathetic: ranch workers must milk cows in the early morning and have safety needs.
A dark-sky designation would normally require the passage of a light ordinance by the county, but organizers say that instead of drafting a new ordinance, the county has opted to roll the requirements into existing code.
The international association promotes five principles for lighting that are intended to guide local ordinances: install lighting only when and where it’s needed, install shields so lights shine down to the ground, use controls such as dimmers, timers and motion sensors, avoid using blue lighting and dim lights as much as possible.
Ms. Day said the fire department was one of several victories since the local effort began. Last summer, West Marin School installed shields on its larger lights that previously illuminated Highway 1 and downtown. When building owner Marshall Livingston discovered that the lights on the Livery Stable couldn’t be retrofitted with standard light shields, he built shields by hand.
“That was our biggest success, because Marshall went the extra step in figuring out the mechanics,” Ms. Day said.
If a streetlight is shining into a home, residents can contact the county’s Department of Public Works and request that the light be shielded.
“If the request is within reason and does not hinder public safety, the streetlight in question may get a back shield attached to help the situation,” said Julian Kaelon, a spokesman for the department.
Wells Fargo installed a shield on a light that faces its back parking lot after several requests from the task force, but the bank has many other lights that Ms. Day and her team are hoping will be dimmed. The gas station has an unshielded streetlight that shines onto A Street for safety purposes.
Ms. Day said the working group is close to securing a local fiscal sponsor, which will help organizers provide more education and community outreach. “It’s a lot of work for a small team of activists,” she said. “I’ve been working with other community groups across West Marin and they’ve been very receptive.”
Residents are slowly getting hip to the movement.
Point Reyes Station photographer Marty Knapp held a talk at the library last week to discuss his career and underscore the importance of darkness, both in his photography and for the natural world. Photographs he’s taken in West Marin’s darkest areas show only the cracks of light expelled by the Milky Way, which he said is visible on fogless nights in the seashore.
His southeast-facing photos are often marred by the glowing dome of San Francisco, he said.
“When you don’t see the stars, you forget where you are and where you come from,” he told a packed room last Tuesday. “We are suffering from tremendous light pollution throughout the world. There are certain things in your body that get triggered the moment you see stars—it’s very healing and we are being increasingly electrified by light pollution.”
Mr. Knapp’s presentation galvanized audience members. Several questioned why businesses like the Palace Market and Building Supply keep their lights on through the night.
“We’ve got a room full of dark-sky vigilantes,” Point Reyes Station resident Mike Neuman joked.
Ms. Day responded that the task force has not yet met with these businesses but plans to in the future.
Only two of the world’s 21 dark sky reserves are in the United States: The Greater Big Bend National Dark Sky Reserve in Texas and Mexico—the largest one in the world, at over 9 million acres—and the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve in the Sawtooth National Forest.
There are 202 certified dark-sky designated areas in the world, each with its own unique set of guidelines. Eighty percent of the dark sky communities, which have less stringent requirements than dark sky reserves, are in the U.S., but the only ones in California are in Julian and Borrego Springs, neighboring towns in San Diego County. Ms. Day said the task force has received advice from leaders of those towns’ initiatives.
A world atlas of artificial sky luminance shows that more than 80 percent of the world’s population and more than 99 percent of U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one third of humanity and nearly 80 percent of North Americans.