STARLIT COMMUNITIES

Tangible Goals: Measurable Results

Since 2004 the Starlit Communities Project has worked to promote lasting public stewardship for Maine’s starry skies. This project was founded upon strategic, collaborative partnerships between scientists, elementary school teachers and students, planning agencies, businesses, diverse nonprofit and government organizations, NASA initiatives, college students, individuals, and volunteers. With new awareness and appreciation for the night sky as a natural and cultural resource, we citizens become first informed about and then motivated to protect this important natural resource.

This is the first community-based program to measure and document light pollution with nightscape survey technology first developed by the National Park Service. AIM's professional Nightscape Survey system produces highly accurate full-sky measurements that enable communities to set clear, measurable goals against scientific baselines. The program is elevating public awareness of the issue of dark-sky preservation and communities are already taking action. In 2008 four towns in the MDI region voted to replace or strengthen their lighting ordinances. In all four cases, we only provided technical assistance when requested and funding was available, a continued policy.

In collaboration with the Hancock County Planning Commission, the Institute developed Light Pollution 101 for the “Striking a Balance Series,” which was subsequently delivered to five planning boards in the communities surrounding Acadia. This region has an extensive dark sky, but intense development pressures are rapidly changing the quality of the starlight experience and resource. The planning boards are using the information and tools we have provided to effect change.

College of the Atlantic and Pemetic Elementary School students learned how to measure and map light pollution with simple hand-held devices. They gained direct experience with safe, energy-efficient alternatives, for which they can now advocate within their communities . Pemetic School received a generous Emery Scholarship to bring this service-learning opportunity into their curriculum, while the funding for COA's equipment was provided by NASA.

Through demonstration projects, businesses, institutions and individuals are volunteering to introduce their communities to improvements in exterior lighting designs, becoming local and regional leaders in preserving their Starlit Communities.

Long-term Goals

The Starlit Communities Project has several long-term goals:

• To decrease the measurable amount of light pollution in Maine communities seeking to protect this unique natural resource, by establishing their current levels of light pollution, educating the stakeholders as to the results, and equipping citizens with the tools to make lasting changes in our attitudes and behaviors toward the night sky.
   
• The Institute seeks to measure and promote the quality of the starlit skies of Maine in order to foster stewardship for all dark skies throughout our local, national, and global community.
   

Attaining Our Objectives
 

• The Maine Technology Institute, and the Quimby Family Foundation have made strategic investments to support our goal of creating the world's first self-supporting professional light pollution research and measurement program.
   
• The most unique feature of the Starlit Communities Project is the collection of information needed to measure our success. We seek measurable improvements in a shared community resource through the widespread use of these measurement tools by community members.

An Innovative Collaboration

By involving broad elements of the community and the promotion of individual & community actions, a wider appreciation for the importance of long-term strategic planning on future growth and development of communities throughout Maine will be demonstrated.

The Starlit Communities Project, by focusing on a uniquely shared resource, engages large segments of the population and diverse organizations in first identifying, and then achieving, mutually beneficial goals based on scientifically sound information and management. The projects are designed to support individuals (including children), organizations, and federal, state, and local agencies seeking to work collaboratively to reach a common clearly defined goal the entire community can share with visible results. As a resource directly reflecting Maine's nationally recognized quality of place, and one intimately shared with its surrounding communities, starlight can only be protected through grass-roots community education and leadership.

Educating Maine's Starlit Communities Since 2004

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