- I grew up in a very rural part of the upper peninsula of Michigan.

I can remember as a child watching meteor showers, watching Northern Lights, sitting up on the roof at night, watching the amazing constellations.

And that was just a part of life.

That was just something that was normal.

I thought everybody got to experience that.

When I moved out of Michigan, I moved to the state of Washington, and as I got older, didn't really pay attention to the sky anymore.

I didn't realize what I wasn't seeing.

I actually had a really amazing, kind of epiphany experience when it comes to dark skies.

When I was in Washington, young family growing up, we actually took a trip to Wyoming and my two teenage daughters were so overwhelmed by the night sky, by the sheer number of stars that they saw that they had tears in their eyes.

And for me, that was just a huge eye-opener.

We had light pollution and we did not get to experience the vast darkness that most of us should be or could be experiencing if we turned off the lights.

(soft acoustic music) We are exposed to light 24/7.

Whether it's our phones, our alarm clocks, our nightlights, headlights, streetlights.

There is light on all the time.

Light pollution is any light that occurs at night that is not natural.

So the moon does not create light pollution.

But any other human made light is considered some type of light pollution.

Globally, 80% of the human population are affected by some level of light pollution.

Basically anywhere you have people that create some sort of outdoor light, there is light pollution.

Even if it's our own porch light, that light is there.

We don't realize it, but that is affecting our natural circadian rhythm.

So that's our biological clock.

That is what tells our body when to have natural processes occur.

And when we're exposed to light all the time, we're actually disrupting those processes.

Things like mood disorders, obesity, physical eye degeneration.

This is all caused by exposure to light.

Animals are also greatly impacted, so you can have migration patterns disrupted, breeding cycles, disrupted predator-prey relationships that occur at night, those are all disrupted.

So all of these natural cycles need to have darkness and the light pollution is preventing that from happening.

We've also got a huge recreation industry, and as people are coming in just to recreate, they're camping, they're recreating at night.

So we have more light being introduced between the flashlights and the outdoor lights on your motor home or just your lantern in your tent.

And it's something that's happening gradually.

And it's that gradual introduction of light and that gradual reduction of darkness is what allows us to be complacent.

It's not a stark thing that happens.

And so slowly over time, we're not looking at the stars every day, every night.

We don't really realize what we lose until they're gone.

This is our sky quality meter and this is what we would use to do our dark sky readings.

It's very simple.

There's just a little box here with a light meter in it.

And so we just point this towards the sky and it gives us a number.

And so we just would record this number, the time that we took the reading, as well as the cloud conditions, the temperature, and any anomalies that might be happening.

Was it snowing?

Was it raining?

Was there something going on?

And I'd have to do this five times.

Getting darker.

(laughs) DarkSky International is a nonprofit organization that certifies areas as a DarkSky place based on the level of darkness in the sky, the level of human inhabitants in the area, and what type of programming or outreach that these organizations or these sites would do promoting dark skies.

Sinks Canyon State Park was designated as the first DarkSky Park in the state of Wyoming, and it is now our responsibility to maintain the dark sky and continue to do outreach.

So we have to do at least four education programs a year, talking about dark skies, telling people how to protect the dark sky, and just kind of promoting that, reducing light pollution.

- Let's try that.

So hit that and then just hit go 'cause now that's in focus.

- I personally am not skilled in astrophotography, but I am so excited that in my role here in the state park, we've been able to put on astrophotography classes.

It's an amazing art and an amazing talent and really takes some skill because I know when I take my camera out, what I see and what I capture on that camera, they're not quite the same.

(indistinct chatter) The response to the programs and the public speaking has been tremendous.

People are really excited about this.

The City of Lander has been really excited about finding out things that they can do to reduce their sky glow and finding opportunities to write grants, to replace streetlights, changing ordinances for newly built buildings that have outdoor lights.

So the reception has really been amazing.

The great thing about light pollution is it is a totally solvable problem.

When we think about air pollution or water pollution, those are really big challenges to tackle.

Light pollution just involves turning off the light.

When we start thinking about the lights that we use, the lights that we need, lights that we have, it can all be mitigated.

First thing is, figure out, do you need that outdoor light?

If you don't, turn it off, take it down.

You can also put lights on motion detectors, photo sensors, so you're only using that light when it's necessary.

The other big thing in preventing that city glow or that sky glow and that light pollution is shielding your lights.

So just putting a simple shield over the top of it so the light is directed down where it needs to be and not up into the sky, would eliminate a huge portion of light pollution.

And just really be thinking about, "Do I need this light?

How much light do I need?

And how can I protect that light from being wasted and shining in spaces I don't need it to be?"

(gentle upbeat music) For Sinks Canyon, our designation as a DarkSky Park, this was great for us.

We had to do a lot of work, but we're very proud of it.

And our guests here to the park now have this opportunity to really engage with the dark sky.

When they're here at night, when they're camping or hiking, they can really appreciate that darkness and understand what they can do to keep that dark.

And I think it's so easy.

It's just one of these things that it's just so easy.

Just turn out the light and we can all make a difference.

I love just looking up at the stars.

It makes me feel calm, peaceful, and really just helps me connect back to nature.

We're all so busy and it's so hectic and there's always things going on, but when you're just sitting there at night, just quiet, staring up, dark sky, Milky Way, constellations, maybe a shooting star, if you're lucky, it really just kind of brings you back down.

I'm really compelled to tell this story, to talk to people about dark skies because of my childhood and my experience.

I grew up with this and I want my kids to be able to grow up with these dark skies and I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to be able to experience the magnitude of stars that are out there, and not to just be complacent with lights around us all the time.

It's our job to make sure that we can keep these dark skies for future generations to enjoy.

(soft bright music)