Starry Night: Waterton-Glacier closes in on landmark dark sky status

On a clear night in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, away from the crowds and the humdrum of modern life, there are stars in the sky. Billions of points of light so bright that, once one gets used to the dim, but comforting glow, a person can walk around by it.

It’s a scene that is lost across much of the U.S. as light pollution from cities scorn the natural skies.

Waterton-Glacier is now on the cusp of becoming an International Dark Sky Park, as recognized by the International Dark Sky Association. Waterton-Glacier is unique in that it will be the first of 30 Dark Sky Parks in the world to cross an international border.

The effort started about five years ago when Dave Ingram, astronomer and the Dark Skies Northwest representative, along with other local astronomers, began the initial inventory of Glacier’s artificial outdoor lights.

There are about 1,500 outdoor lights in Glacier and thousands more in Waterton, which includes road lights and the Waterton townsite inside the park, noted John Barentine, program manager for the International Dark Sky Association.

In order to qualify as an International Dark Sky Park, Glacier-Waterton has to modify its light sources to make them dark-sky compliant. Lights above 500 lumens, which is about the size of a 40-watt bulb, have to be shielded downward. Lights are also regulated by the type of light they emit. Blue light is especially harmful to creatures that depend on the dark, like birds, mammals, insects and even plants, Barentine noted.

Currently, the Park is about 40 percent compliant, Barentine noted, but by the end of the month, it’s expected to submit a plan to the Dark Sky Association where it will eventually reach the necessary two-thirds of compliant lighting to become certified.

The Park is then given a provisional designation, which will likely come in June. The Park is then given three years to meet the full requirements, as it takes funding and manpower to retrofit or replace existing lights.

A grant from the Glacier National Park Conservancy has helped fund the effort to date, said Mark Biel, natural resources project manager for the park.

Glacier recently solicited and received support from the Columbia Falls City Council for the park’s dark sky designation. The council was not asked to adopt dark skies in the city, but it already has shielded light standards in its regulations, Mayor Don Barnhart noted.

Dark skies don’t mean dark streets and walkways.

“The purpose of (artificial) lighting is way finding and pedestrian safety,” Ingram noted when he first started the effort. “Going up into the sky is totally wasted energy.”

For several years, Ingram volunteered as a park astronomer, running both a daytime program that allowed visitors to view the sun safely and a night time program than did stargazing to midnight and beyond.

He “retired” a couple of years ago and now runs program with Washington state parks, but his love for Glacier and its skies still glows strong, especially when he sees the reaction of people out stargazing with him.

“People just love to look at the stars,” Ingram said last week. “If you leave them alone, they’ll entertain the themselves. Let the stars write the poem.”