STARLIT COMMUNITIES

Tangible Goals: Measurable Results

The Starlit Communities Project is a grassroots educational outreach program designed to promote lasting public stewardship for Maine’s starry skies. This project is 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 believe citizens will be motivated to protect this important natural resource.

This is the first community-based program to measure and document light pollution in collaboration with the National Park Service. The NPS systems 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 three of the four towns on MDI voted to replace or strengthen their lighting ordinances. In each case we provided technical assistance as it was requested.

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 COA's equipment was provided for 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 on Mount Desert Island and a number of other communities in Hancock and Washington Counties, by establishing current levels, educating the public as to the results, and equipping citizens with the tools to make lasting changes in our attitudes and behaviors toward the night sky.
   
• To establish Acadia National Park and its surrounding communities as an international dark-sky preserve. The Institute seeks to measure and promote the quality the starlit skies of Acadia National Park in order to foster stewardship for all dark skies throughout our local, national, and global community.
   

Attaining Our Objectives

• Comprehensive planning boards are being introduced to the Hancock County Planning Commission’s Outdoor Lighting Manual, and are receiving assistance in the adoption of lighting ordinances.
   
• An initiative to measure, promote, and protect Acadia’s dark skies is underway through the collaboration of the Park, Friends of Acadia, the Planning Commission, the schools, and the Island Astronomy Institute.
   
• Starlit Community demonstration projects are being implemented by leading businesses, institutions, and individuals, to showcase the effectiveness and efficiency of quality exterior lighting designs.
   
• Elementary school students have participated in service-learning projects to measure, promote, and protect their starlit communities. They have made a significant contribution to their communities, and have received recognition for their work.
   
• We have encountered overwhelming public willingness to adopt starlit skies as a natural and cultural resource worthy of protection.
   
• The Maine Technology Institute has made strategic investments to support our goal of a creating the worlds first self-supporting light pollution 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

This project is the result of strategic planning and development of a formal collaborative agreement between the Island Astronomy Institute and Acadia National Park and NSP scientists. It is the first program to transfer state of the NPS Light Pollution Measurement technology outside the government into a grassroots community organization.

By involving broad elements of the community in the adoption of municipal ordinances and the promotion of individual 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 work collaboratively to reach a common clearly defined goal, ones the entire community can share the visible results. As a resource intimately shared with its surrounding communities starlight can only be protected through grass roots community education and leadership.