BISBEE, Ariz. (KGUN) — In 2024, the city of Bisbee became a dark sky community, a recognition for its preservation of the night skies, something that started roughly eight years ago with the Bisbee Dark Sky Initiative.
"Walk out of their house and look up and see the Milky Way. That is very unusual. I grew up on the East Coast. That was something that we just didn't see," said Thora Colot, executive director of the Bisbee Science Exploration & Research Center.
Bruce Syrett started the organization wanting to keep the skies clear of light pollution.
"I became interested in trying to prevent this from going the way that so many of our other cities have done it with uncontrolled lighting and development," Syrett said.
He says he worked with city officials to get regulations in place for new businesses and homes to have lights with shades on them directing the light downward.
"They go perfectly with the dark skies, concert, if we just shade them, so the light isn't going out all over. It just lights up the area. So it's really that easy. It's that easy. These things come separately, but you just unscrew the ball with the shade there and screw right up, and it's wonderful," Syrett said.
He says over a dozen local businesses have voluntarily added the shades to help with the dark skies initiative.
"That's what makes Bisbee so special, is people feel a sense of community here and being part of a dark sky community has motivated a lot of our business owners," Syrett said.
Now he and his members are working on educating the next generation.
"The educational aspect is the biggest thing, because we realize by passing this to another generation, it becomes sort of self-perpetuating," Syrett said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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