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Light pollution grows every year, which leaves parks and protected areas as some of the last places with a genuinely dark sky. Parks have outdoor lighting of their own, so protecting the view means changing how parks light themselves.
The obvious objection is the visitor. Darker paths might feel less safe, harder to navigate, and more restrictive — red-light torches only, after dark and before dawn. Whether visitors would accept that had never been measured.
What was measured
An on-site intercept survey at nine state and national park units in Utah, asking nighttime visitors whether they supported seven specific management actions and what they wanted to learn about.
The study also drew a line nobody had drawn before: between visitors dependent on the dark sky — there for the stars — and visitors whose activities happen at night but do not need darkness. Defining that group may outlive the findings, because night-sky research has had no way to talk about it.
The findings
| Nighttime visitors doing something that depends on a dark sky | 62% |
| Support for each of seven management actions | 74–89% |
| Interested in learning more about night skies | 57–75% |
Dark-sky-dependent visitors supported some of the alternative lighting practices more strongly, as you would expect. What matters is that the others supported them too. The objection the survey was built to test did not show up.
Who did the work
J. Adam Beeco and Sharolyn J. Anderson (NPS Natural Sounds & Night Skies Division), Emily J. Wilkins (USGS), Anna B. Miller, Chase C. Lamborn and Jordan W. Smith (Utah State University), Zachary D. Miller (NPS Intermountain Regional Office).
Beeco, J. A., et al. (2023). Support for management actions to protect night sky quality: Insights from visitors to state and National Park units in the U.S. Journal of Environmental Management 345, 118878.
Where this belongs
- Arches National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Canyonlands National Park
- Capitol Reef National Park
- Natural Bridges National Monument
Sources
Written from the National Park Service's
summary of the study,
a work of the United States government in the public domain.
In these publicationsArches National ParkCanyonlands National ParkCapitol Reef National ParkBryce Canyon National Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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