The Full Story
Experts
Hear why three "experts" - two members of the IDA and a SLV GO! employee - are committed to preserving dark skies and learn what you can do to take action.
How she got started:
Martie went to Westcliffe for the first time in October of 2019. The moon was just past the quarter phase, but much of the night sky could be observed through the telescope at the Smokey Jack Observatory; this was the first time Martie had ever looked through a telescope. This is where her passion started.
What she learned:
After being inspired by the clear skies of Westcliffe, Martie started learning about all the benefits of dark skies and how light pollution is increasing at an alarming rate. More specifically, she started learning what light pollution is doing to the ecological system and human health. Ecologically, she found that light pollution alters vegetation growth pattern, which then negatively impacts the animals that depend on that vegetation. More specifically, light pollution has been found to cause trees to bloom early. In turn, this causes trees to lose their leaves earlier in the fall. Then when birds that rely on food from trees come to feed, they cannot find enough food before migration. This causes birds to starve and affects their migration patterns. She also found that light pollution significantly contributes to climate change. It quickly became apparent that light pollution affects so many things around us and that so many effects are intertwined. This realization encouraged Martie to take action.
How she took action:
Martie started taking action during the pandemic by encouraging people in her town of Blue River to turn off their lights and go outside. According to Martie, “You can get a great view of the night sky [in Blue River] if the lights are turned off.” Unfortunately, the town never pursued getting an International Dark Sky certification, but this did not stop Martie from doing her part. She quickly found that this initative went beyond her community and that other places were interested in preserving dark skies. She reached out to the previous Colorado Chair of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) to start advocating for dark skies at the state level. Martie was formally a foreign language teacher and advocated for foreign language education in schools and she figured she could transfer some skills she learned from that experience to advocating for dark skies.
The 2019 Governor’s proclamation on dark skies got shut down, but Martie decided to fight for it. When the most recent proclamation came around, Martie played a key role in encouraging IDA Colorado to become a Care for Colorado Stewardship partner. As a result, IDA Colorado was selected to do the June 2022 monthly message titled Unveil the Night.
Advice from Martie - How you can take action:
The first step to take action is educating yourself. In Martie’s words,
“Perhaps that’s one reason I’m so passionate about the night sky – because I feel like there’s a lot of people who are like me that want to be environmentally conscious but do not know or have not been exposed to the why and how to protect the night sky.”
So in order to take action, you first have to put in effort towards learning about the benefits of dark skies and the threats of light pollution. After you take the time to educate yourself, you can start educating people around you to help spread awareness.
The other thing you can do, which Martie is very passionate about, is using red light at night. Red light does not contribute to light pollution, and has other benefits as well such as not interfering with sleep like blue light.
Take Action Like Martie.
After talking with Martie, it was very clear that she is passionate about dark skies, and she decided to do something about it. We can all learn something from Martie, starting with how to take action. Let's dive into her story and learn more about what she is doing to help preserve dark skies.