Bob Yoesle was awarded a Dark Sky Defender award in 2015 by DarkSky International for his efforts to conserve the night sky of the Goldendale Observatory. Photo courtesy Bob Yoesle
Bob Yoesle was awarded a Dark Sky Defender award in 2015 by DarkSky International for his efforts to conserve the night sky of the Goldendale Observatory. Photo courtesy Bob Yoesle
Excessive artificial light at night — “light pollution” — is a growing environmental and public health concern. The wasted energy from poorly directed and unnecessary outdoor lighting adds the equivalent of 21 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere annually. With the proliferation of outdoor LED lighting, night sky brightness is growing rapidly. The splendor of the night sky, cherished for milennia, is being dramatically lost, even in rural America.
In response, Sisters, Oregon — a picturesque town of 3,475 residents surrounded by forests and the Cascade Mountains — has achieved certification as an International Dark Sky Community, joining a prestigious list of more than 200 International Dark Sky Places worldwide. Though the town lacks a public observatory, it has shown a commitment to night sky conservation by providing public education outreach initiatives, including formation of astronomy clubs years ago. The city recently updated its outdoor lighting ordinance to ensure it met the standards set by DarkSky International.
Goldendale, Washington, similarly sized near the forests of the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, has been renowned since 1973 for the Goldendale Observatory. A Washington State Park since 1980, the Goldendale Observatory was certified as an International Dark Sky Park in 2010 — the sixth in the world, and second State Park in the U.S. to be so honored.
Sadly, due to lack of vision and regressive attitudes, Goldendale is now home to the world’s first and only official Dark Sky Place decertified by DarkSky International (www.goldendale-observatory.com).
The Goldendale Observatory boasts a massive 24½ inch reflector telescope built by amateur astronomers for Clark College in Vancouver. To escape light pollution from Portland and Vancouver, in 1973, the college located the telescope in Goldendale. To secure getting the telescope, Goldendale pledged to educate the public about night sky conservation, and in 1979, fulfilled its promise to adopt outdoor lighting codes to protect the telescope from Goldendale’s light pollution. With an International Dark Sky Park designation, Washington State Parks also committed to night sky conservation education and public outreach.
However, this commitment was met with opposition from Goldendale business leaders and influential politicians. In 2013, newly arrived Washington State Parks Area Manager Lem Pratt and Goldendale Observatory Director Troy Carpenter, lacking dedication to dark sky conservation, formed a partnership with the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce Director Dana Peck. They failed to provide the required education and public outreach for maintaining a dark sky designation.
Simultaneously Goldendale weakened its 1979 revised outdoor lighting ordinance under pressure from Goldendale’s State Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, which resulted in failure to meet DarkSky International standards. As a consequence, the Goldendale Observatory was decertified as a Dark Sky Park in 2017.
To replace the tourism-generating loss of the Dark Sky Park, Goldendale (after being offered direct no-cost assistance from DarkSky International) allocated thousands of hotel tourism tax funds to the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce for developing a voluntary lighting code education program and submit an application — without an updated lighting code — to become an International Dark Sky Community. The education program never materialized, and the Dark Sky Community application was so incomplete that it was rejected without consideration.
While promising accountability for the tax funds it awards, Goldendale has not addressed the Chambers’ failure to develop lighting code public education, nor enforced its inadequate lighting code for protecting the night sky for the observatory. Not surprisingly, satellite data shows light pollution has significantly increased at the observatory.
Despite decades of promises to conserve the increasingly bright night sky of the Goldendale Observatory, Goldendale and Washington State Parks are premier examples of night sky conservation neglect.
Sisters, Oregon, is an outstanding example of night sky conservation support.
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Bob Yoesle built his first telescope in seventh grade, and has designed and built many others since. In 1979, he traveled to Goldendale with other amateur astronomers to see the total solar eclipse at the Goldendale Observatory, and was greatly impressed with the facility. He moved to Klickitat County to escape light pollution from Portland and Vancouver.
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