Category: Heritage

Think you can’t protect the night sky close to a large urban community? Think again…North Fork Park, located only 12 miles outside North Ogden, is a true success story for Dark Sky preservation. Designated in 2015, North Fork Park was the second county park in the world to receive the prestigious Dark Sky Park designation. With the rapid growth of its cities, parts of Utah are losing the dark night skies that once characterized frontier life in the Beehive State. In an effort to save this vanishing resource, local residents came together to preserve the night sky. Thanks to their years of dedication, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) now recognizes Weber County North Fork Park as the world’s first Bronze-tier International Dark Sky Park. 
Read more of this success story here

And in our own backyard, you can take a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument, an International Dark Sky Park designed in 2017 and one of the best places for stargazing in Utah. Cedar Breaks is located in one of the largest regions of remaining natural darkness in the lower 48 U.S. states and is developing into a mecca for astrotourism. Cedar Breaks recognizes that the dark sky is a fragile and vanishing natural resource and is dedicated to making every effort to help preserve it.
(Although the Park’s summer ranger-led astronomy programs were cancelled during Covid, you can contact the Park at (435) 986-7120 to confirm star-gazing programs for the summer of 2022.) 

Even if the ranger programs are not being held, you can read seven simple ways to enjoy the dark sky here 

Protecting our dark skies might be easier than you think. Check out this short video from Clark Planetarium for simple ways you can help protect the night sky. 

Here is an excerpt from a presentation by Marc Deshowitz at Red Mountain Resort, “Preserving one of our most precious resources… our night sky.” We will post six more video excerpts from Marc’s presentation over the next few weeks. Here are the titles of the seven video excerpts:

• Are we losing our heritage of dark skies?
• How light pollution increases air pollution
• The hidden danger in white light: Blue
• Outdoor lighting harms nature and crops
• Bright white light doesn’t increase safety
• Simple outdoor retrofit examples
• What you can do to improve outdoor lighting

Let us know if this Initiative is important to you, if you are willing to get involved, and what else you think we should be doing to improve, preserve, and protect dark skies in Ivins. We will get back to you as soon as possible.