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In 2021, Bend received 32 lighting ordinance complaints, and Deschutes County received five.
“Sunriver enforces it (without just complaints)— that’s key,” said Cathie Flanigan, who helped found Oregon’s chapter of the IDA with her husband, Bill Kowalik.
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Pressuring local officials
Perched on the top of Awbrey Butte, Flanigan and Kowalik’s house looks out at the Cascades. On clear days, they can even see Mount Adams, in Washington state. And on clear nights, endless stars await — that is, when they can see them.
According to the couple, they could see many more stars when they moved to the house five years ago, and their neighbors say they used to be able to see even more—a prime motivation for the couple to dedicate themselves to reducing light pollution and form the Oregon IDA chapter.
“Neither of us are astronomers, but we appreciate the majesty of the Milky Way,” said Kowalik, who worked as an earth scientist for 35 years and analyzes light pollution data in his free time. He, and other chapter members, have placed 35 sky quality meters around the state, which take measurements every five minutes.
Kowalik presented this data as part of a panel at a Feb. 10 Deschutes County Planning Commission meeting, where dark sky advocates urged the county to update its 1994 lighting ordinance applying to all unincorporated areas. They recommended the county follow the IDA’s five lighting principles for responsible outdoor lighting: make it useful, targeted, low-level, controlled and use warmer colors.
“Good lighting you don’t notice,” said Flanigan, adding that more lighting is not always safer. Shielding and lowering lights can prevent glare, and warm-colored lights have less of an impact on night vision than blue lights.
In addition to proposing the county change the color of its lights, the panelists proposed limiting when businesses can have lights on at night and restricting the use of string lights, since they are rarely covered and emit a lot of light. They also suggested making sure all outdoor lighting at construction projects is dark-sky approved and simplifying the process for making lighting-related complaints. All of this would ideally be accompanied by educational campaigns.
The Planning Commission ultimately voted unanimously to recommend the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners update the existing outdoor lighting ordinance and explore the possibility of a dark skies educational campaign. This spring, the Board of Commissioners will start considering this update, though it’s unclear what form it will take.
According to Flanigan, “Deschutes County is really ahead of the pack here.”
“They can be the example for the state,” she said, adding it’s “in the cosmos” for the commissioners to update the policy, with a groundswell of support. Even the High Desert Museum is running an exhibit focused on conserving dark skies starting April 16.
The town of Sisters is also making moves toward updating its outdoor lighting policies. Students from the Sisters High School astronomy club presented to the City Council on Feb. 23, urging it to implement the city’s lighting ordinance and raise awareness about light pollution.
“It’s something that I think the kids really care a lot about, and they’re excited to use their voice,” said Rima Givot, the high school science teacher who leads the club. “Little actions do matter, and it’s totally within everybody’s power to play a part.”
Stimulating curiosity
One of Givot’s former students, Grant Tandy, went on to a career in astronomy, running the “Hopservatory” at Worthy Brewing. He advocates for dark skies by trying to get visitors as enthralled by the universe as he is.
On the eastern edge of Bend’s city limits, Worthy Brewing is a hub for astrotourism where visitors can pair their dinner with a look at the stars. Viewers start their journey in a small, circular room known as the “transporter room,” which sits at the base of the observatory dome towering two stories above. The room is decorated with mosaic tiles depicting speeding comets, spaceships and planets, and a marbleized Venetian plaster mural that shows the transition from Earth’s core toward the stars and beyond.
“The main goal is stimulating curiosity and trying to get people to think outside the box,” Tandy said, adding the brewery-meets-observatory offers yet another opportunity to get people invested in the night skies and help them understand how they can reduce their own light pollution.
“It’s the easiest form of pollution to solve because you can literally just turn off a light,” Tandy pointed out while climbing the ladder to the large telescope in the small viewing dome.
Tandy can tell when light pollution is making his views blur together at the Hopservatory, which— unlike Central Oregon’s other observatories—is located within an urban area. On the flip side, the Hopservatory does reach a unique demographic of people, who may not be willing to drive an hour out of their way to an observatory like Pine Mountain or Sunriver.
It’s also the only observatory connected to a brewery that’s in the “known universe,” Tandy joked. “We’re looking for others,” he added, peering through his telescope at the sky above.
Learn more about the International Dark Sky Association’s Oregon chapter at darkskyoregon.org.
Above are 2012 and 2020 models of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, from nighttime satellite images taken at 2 a.m.
A Sky Full of Stars, Local observatories and when to visit
Hopservatory at Worthy Brewing Wed., Thu., 8-9 p.m. Fri., Sat., 8-10 p.m. worthygardenclub.com/hopservatory $5 suggested donation
Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory Wed. and Sat. nights See snco.org for exact times and solar viewing offerings $20 (reservations required)
Pine Mountain Observatory Select weekends See pmo.uoregon.edu for more information $5 suggested donation
Prineville Reservoir State Park Day-use area Open after hours with stargazing permit See stateparks.oregon.gov for more information Free
Courtesy International Dark Sky Association Oregon Chapter