Colorado mountain town measures every streetlight to win back its night sky
Leadville, Colorado, is applying to DarkSky International for certification as a place that limits light pollution. Volunteers are measuring every public light in town, and the state of Colorado is helping dozens of communities and parks through the same process.
Light pollution means four out of five people in North America cannot see the Milky Way. More than 230 places have joined the nonprofit DarkSky International's effort to reverse that, and the Mountain West leads the way: Flagstaff, Arizona, became the first dark sky community in 2001, central Idaho has the only dark sky reserve in the United States, and Utah has the highest concentration of dark sky places in the world.
Leadville, a former mining town in Colorado's mountains, wants to join them. Its leaders are applying for DarkSky certification. The town's mentor, Ben Banet, has been walking volunteers around with a light sensor, measuring each streetlight's brightness and colour and noting whether it is shielded or shines up into the sky. The inventory, required for certification, will tell Leadville where it can cut glare. "We probably don't need three lights on that one pole," Banet said outside the courthouse.
"We are not trying to get rid of all light altogether," said Michael Rymer of DarkSky International. "We're trying to use light more responsibly." Artificial light can disturb sleep cycles in people and animals, keep city birds up later and confuse dung beetles that navigate at night.
Colorado's legislature set up a $35,000 dark sky grant and mentor programme. The state now has 19 certified dark sky places and 35 more in the pipeline.
At a Forest Service star party at nearby Twin Lakes, visitor Bruce Hicks looked up and said: "This is pretty spectacular. There's a lot of stars out."
Small towns can win back a sky full of stars by using light more carefully, and the dark is good for wildlife and visitors alike.
Source: Why are more Mountain West communities trying to protect the night skies? (KUNC).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
- Volunteer hospital musicians reach their one millionth patient October 8, 2026