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<p>Visionaires:</p>
<p><br>
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<p>Here is an interesting idea about which I heard a blurb on the
radio this afternoon.</p>
<p>This story below appears to be a month old, and before the
eclipse.</p>
<p>Perhaps it was a slow news day today, but I haven't seen a link
to today's story yet.</p>
<p>Don't miss the link to listen to the 4:58 audio below.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
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<p>Ken<br>
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<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/first-dark-sky-reserve-us-could-be-idaho">http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/first-dark-sky-reserve-us-could-be-idaho</a>
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<h1 itemprop="name" class="post-title"> First Dark
Sky Reserve In The U.S. Could Be In Idaho </h1>
<div class="by-date"> <span class="submitted"><span
content="2017-08-14T10:56:00-06:00"
rel="sioc:has_creator"><span
class="submitted-label">By</span> <span
class="name"><a
href="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/people/matt-guilhem"
rel="author">Matt Guilhem</a></span></span></span>
<i class="bullet">•</i> <span class="pub-date">Aug
14, 2017 </span> </div>
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<li>
<figure> <a title="Light
pollution makes the Milky Way
impossible to see in all but
the darkest regions. The skies
over Stanley and the
surrounding Sawtoooth National
Recreation Area are some of
the darkest in the continental
U.S."
href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201708/MilkyWay_Sky_Night_Stars.jpg"
class="noexit lightbox"> <img
src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/medium/public/201708/MilkyWay_Sky_Night_Stars.jpg"
alt="Light pollution makes
the Milky Way impossible to
see in all but the darkest
regions. The skies over
Stanley and the surrounding
Sawtoooth National
Recreation Area are some of
the darkest in the
continental U.S."> </a>
<div class="image-meta"> <figcaption>
<div class="caption">Light
pollution makes the Milky
Way impossible to see in
all but the darkest
regions. The skies over
Stanley and the
surrounding Sawtoooth
National Recreation Area
are some of the darkest in
the continental U.S.</div>
<div class="attribution"> <span
class="credit">Shutter
Runner</span> / <span
class="agency">Flickr</span>
</div>
</figcaption>
</div>
</figure>
</li>
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<div class="field field-name-body
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<p>With up to a million people
predicted to come to Idaho to watch
the solar eclipse on August 21, the
sky is big business. While day
turning to night is rare to see, the
night sky is a spectacle unto
itself.</p>
<div class="audio-container">
<div
id="jp-interface--59bc6bbb23a8f"
class="jp-interface paused">
<div class="playpause"> <a
href="https://cpa.ds.npr.org/idaho/audio/2017/08/081417_DarkSkies_MG.mp3"
title="Click 'play' to hear
the audio version of this
story." class="jp-play"
style="display: block;">Listen</a>
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</div>
<div class="listening-text">Listening...</div>
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<div class="duration-wrapper">
<div
class="jp-custom-duration">4:58</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="audio-caption">Click
'play' to hear the audio version
of this story.</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<p>In town, you might see just a few
stars, but in the wilderness – away
from the glow of the city – the sky
puts on a show each night. In
Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation
Area, one of the darkest places left
in the lower 48 states, a campaign
is underway to save the pristine
sky.</p>
<p>The evening air is cooling off as
the twilight fades to black and the
moon slips behind the Sawtooth
Mountains. At a campsite just off
Highway 75 a little south of
Stanley, City Councilman Steve Botti
is standing by a crackling campfire
with a glass of wine in his hand.
He’s waiting for it to be truly
dark.</p>
<p>Once the sky finally transitions
from deep purple to a rich black
with a host of stars starting to
shimmer, Botti suggests we walk away
from the campfire “to let our eyes
really adjust because even that bit
of light really makes a lot of
difference,” he says.</p>
<p>In the high mountain valley with
the Sawtooth range to the west and
the White Cloud Mountains to the
east, we’re miles from the nearest
town – let alone city – that could
be sending light up into the air.</p>
<div
class="wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper
wide">
<div class="wysiwyg-asset-image"> <a
href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
class="popup"> <img
class="pi_assets-image"
data-interchange-default="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/sites/idaho/files/styles/default/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
data-interchange-small="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/small/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
data-interchange-medium="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/medium/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
data-interchange-large="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"></a>
<h1 itemprop="name"
class="post-title">First Dark
Sky Reserve In The U.S. Could Be
In Idaho</h1>
<a
href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201708/StanleyEvening_Clouds_Twilight.JPG"
class="popup"> </a>
<div class="image-meta">
<div class="caption">A sliver of
the moon hangs over large
clouds as the sun goes down in
the Sawtooth Valley.</div>
<div class="credit">Credit Matt
Guilhem / Boise State Public
Radio</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>We walk away from the fire and go
about 30 yards. Where we’re
standing, Botti’s car is blocking
most of the light. He takes out what
looks like a pager and holds it up
to the heavens. It beeps several
times, and a red number appears on
the digital display: 21.54.</p>
<p>“So, 22 is considered as dark as
the sky can get – no light
pollution, no sky glow – and I’ve
gotten readings of 22 here in this
valley,” says Botti. The little
pager he’s holding is called a sky
quality meter; it measures the
darkness of the sky.</p>
<p>Botti is leading the effort to get
this rural and rugged area
designated the first International
Dark Sky Reserve in the U.S. Eleven
similarly-dark places around the
world have gotten the designation,
but getting to a reserve in central
Idaho is a lot easier than going to
see a couple of the other reserves
in Namibia or New Zealand.</p>
<p>In the crisp air, our backs to the
fire and our necks craned upward,
the night sky is luminous. Tens of
thousands of little dots shimmer as
shooting stars streak by every few
minutes. And arching over us, the
Milky Way itself is visible.</p>
<p>In the darkness, Botti points to
the shadowy haze of the galaxy
bending over us.</p>
<p>“Along the arc of the Milky Way,
there are dark bands within the
stars which is the galactic dust,
and you can see those because the
stars are so bright,” he says.</p>
<p>Over the last two years, Botti has
been routinely measuring the
darkness of the sky. He’s also
worked to curb light pollution in
Stanley to meet strict standards and
collaborated with the neighboring
communities of Sun Valley, Ketchum
and Hailey to land the reserve
status.</p>
<p>According to John Barentine, the
program manager for the
Arizona-based International Dark
Skies Association, of the five
designations the organization has,
reserve is the most difficult to
land.</p>
<div
class="wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper
left">
<div class="wysiwyg-asset-image"> <a
href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG"
class="popup"> <img
class="pi_assets-image"
data-interchange-default="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/sites/idaho/files/styles/default/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG"
data-interchange-small="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/small/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG"
data-interchange-medium="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/medium/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG"
data-interchange-large="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG"
src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/StanleyLake_Reflection_Mountain.JPG">
</a>
<div class="image-meta">
<div class="caption">The craggy
Sawtooth Mountains make for
stunning views in the daytime
and provide a buffer from
light pollution at night.</div>
<div class="credit">Credit Matt
Guilhem / Boise State Public
Radio</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Barentine says the people in this
remote corner of Idaho reached out
to him.</p>
<p>“They told me that they view the
nighttime darkness and, you know,
the ability to see the Milky Way, as
something that is definitive of
their part of the state and their
part of the country.”</p>
<p>For years now, Barentine and others
at the association have been
collecting sky quality readings from
the Sawtooth region to gauge the
suitability of the proposed reserve.</p>
<p>Barentine describes the
certification system as one of trust
by verify: “We trust the
measurements that the applicants
make from on the ground, and we
verify it by looking at data from
Earth-orbiting satellites that are
looking down on the Earth at night.”</p>
<p>Those satellites corroborate the
deep darkness Botti routinely
measures in the Sawtooths. While the
Dark Skies Association’s mission is
preserving the experience of seeing
an unpolluted night sky, Barentine
says gazing at myriad stars is
something tourists are increasingly
drawn to.</p>
<p>“A daytime visit to a place like
the national recreation area might
not have the same degree of economic
impact, so dark skies means at least
an overnight stay,” he explains.</p>
<p>Down the road from Stanley and over
the Galena Summit is Ketchum. After
this summer’s total solar eclipse,
the Wood River Valley city will be
no stranger to sky-watching
tourists. As she sits on the patio
of the restaurant she runs with her
husband, Ketchum Mayor Nina Jonas
says she’s bracing for record levels
of visitors.</p>
<div
class="wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper
left">
<div class="wysiwyg-asset-image"> <a
href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG"
class="popup"> <img
class="pi_assets-image"
data-interchange-default="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/sites/idaho/files/styles/default/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG"
data-interchange-small="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/small/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG"
data-interchange-medium="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/medium/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG"
data-interchange-large="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG"
src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201708/NinaJonas.JPG">
</a>
<div class="image-meta">
<div class="caption">Ketchum
Mayor Nina Jonas stands in her
restaurant, Rickshaw, while
explaining her community's
long commitment to minimizing
light pollution. Ketchum
instituted its first dark
skies ordinance in 1999.</div>
<div class="credit">Credit Matt
Guilhem / Boise State Public
Radio</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>“They’re telling us to anticipate
three to four times our maximum
tourism load for a single event,”
she says. “That’s very evidential of
the fact that people do come for the
love of the sky.”</p>
<p>She’s nervous but excited for the
huge influx of visitors coming to
witness the celestial spectacle.
Jonas says Ketchum was an early
adopter of policies that keep the
sky in mind and curb light
pollution; it passed its first Dark
Skies ordinance in 1999.</p>
<p>As proposed, the more than
900,000-acre central Idaho dark sky
reserve would include Ketchum,
Hailey and Sun Valley on the
periphery with tiny Stanley right on
the edge of the core where the sky
is darkest.</p>
<p>In the Sawtooth Valley, back at the
campsite, the moon has totally set,
the air is chilly, and the heavens
have gotten even clearer. It’s a
little after midnight when Steve
Botti pulls out his sky quality
meter one final time before heading
a few miles up the road to his home
back in Stanley.</p>
<p>As he holds it up, he says, “A
reading of 21.75 or higher is
considered by the Dark Sky
Association to be exceptionally
dark.”</p>
<p>He pushes the button. Beep. Beep.
Beep.</p>
<p>“21.76,” he reads on the digital
display with satisfaction.</p>
<p>A couple years into the application
process which usually takes around
three years from start finish, Botti
and his partners in the neighboring
towns will soon submit their final
paperwork seeking recognitions for
their skies. If it’s accepted, the
country’s first International Dark
Sky Reserve could be in the Idaho
backcountry as soon as next year.</p>
<p><em>For more local news, follow the
KBSX newsroom on Twitter <a
href="https://twitter.com/kbsx915"
target="_blank">@KBSX915</a></em></p>
<p><em>Copyright 2017 Boise State
Public Radio</em></p>
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<p>Most hotels and campgrounds
in Idaho along the path of
the total solar eclipse this
August have been sold out
for months if not years. But
one group still has
campsites available near
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the eclipse to those who
can’t make it into the
backcountry.</p>
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