Can’t See the Stars? Starlight Reserve to Promote Astro Tourism in New Zealand

The small town of Tekapo, New Zealand is working with UNESCO to create the first “Starlight Reserve” by keeping “light pollution” out of the skies.

In Tekapo, a town of 830 people, sodium lamps are sheilded from above and household lights must face down, not up.

The “Starlight Reserve” idea germinated in UNESCO in 2005. Tekapo, in the McKenzie Basin of South Island, was already on its own track, seeking what locals were calling their “park in the sky.”

In many cities throughout the world, the stars have all but disappeared from public view, and it’s not pollution that’s hiding the stars, but man made “light haze.”

While other tourist destinations greet the night by lighting it up, Tekapo hoping to attract “Astro Tourists” by keeping things as dark as possible.

“We’ve got a dark sky, and we’ve got to hang on to it,” said Graeme Murray, chairman of the Mackenzie Tourism and Development Board.

I’ve never been cognizant of this, but some of my best memories include starry nights. Pigeon River State Forest in Michigan, laying on the hood of a Hummwv in the desert, sleeping on a mountain-top in Colorado, the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, all of these are places where the stars are as they should be.

This is just one of the reasons why protected wilderness is so important. It shows us that there is a whole universe out there, just above our porch lights.

photo credit: makelessnoise

Source: Washington Post Express Print Journal

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