General Membership Meeting: Preserving our Dark Skies

Location: Washington City Library

Speaker: Deborah Stocks

Description of Topic: This presentation will be about the impact of Artificial Light At Night, “ALAN”, on the environment, the economy and all living creatures particularly birds, turtles, corals and insects.  The presentation will include why the preservation of dark skies is important, discuss the impact of light pollution and ways to reduce it. Light pollution is actually easy and simple to remedy.

Speaker Bio:  First off - I need to say I am not a bird expert.  I do enjoy bird watching and have some great “birder” friends. As the spouse of a frequent National Park Artist in Residence, I have had some volunteer opportunities banding water fowl and doing “bio counts” with park biologists.  As a member of Southern Utah Dark Sky Advocacy Group and an advocate with Dark Sky International, I do have information to share on the adverse impact of light pollution. I am hoping after this presentation, you will join in preserving our notable dark skies here in Utah.  At the very least, I hope you are able to get to a dark area to enjoy “cosmic awe”, over 80% of the world cannot see what we have.   

I am a Registered Nurse with a MS in Health Administration and worked as a nurse and an educator in health care for almost 50 years. My husband’s love of astronomy and astrophotography led us to start a family business – a remote observatory about 5 years ago (Utah Desert Remote Observatories).  As we found our beautiful dark skies, even away from the cities, being lost due to growth and lights, I became an advocate for light pollution prevention. The more I learn about the negative effects of ALAN, the more passionate I have become with sharing this knowledge.