Lighting regulations for unincorporated portions of the county were approved by the board of supervisors in a 3-2 vote on Aug. 19.Now covering inland areas, the guidelines were influenced by recommendations from DarkSky International, an advocacy group dedicated to combating light pollution. An accompanying coastal version still needs approval from the California Coastal Commission to go into effect.Under the dark sky ordinance, new exterior lights in residential areas can be a maximum of 1100 lumens — a brightness measure equivalent to a 75-watt bulb — and 3200 lumens in commercial zones. It also adds restrictions on light spillage onto other properties and motion sensor lights.Sylvia van Royen, Humboldt Waterkeeper’s GIS and policy analyst, created a map on the spread of light pollution in Humboldt County and documented that Eureka’s reaches 24 miles off the coast from its brightest point. Each population area in the region creates its own cascading emanations, she says, resulting in the fragmentation of natural environments — including national forests — that can confuse wildlife.“They kind of make this connected blob of sky glows,” van Royen said. “If you think about it, if you were a bird and you were trying to fly through the dark areas, now those are disconnected from each other. And they have to fly through this, but then, when they fly through the brighter light, they might get disoriented.”Van Royen has been combing through studies on light pollution to help educate local residents on the importance of regulating the brightness and temperature of lighting, with Humboldt Waterkeeper collaborating with DarkSky International and area businesses to get the word out about their findings.“Because it can disrupt our circadian rhythms, it kind of throws off our natural cycles of when we’re eating and sleeping,” van Royen said. “And that can have an effect on our health by contributing to insomnia, depression, obesity, we can lose our night vision.”When a person is looking at a bright light, she says, it is more difficult to see things outside of the light’s range. In situations like construction work happening at night, this can have dangerous consequences, van Royen says, pointing to case studies where DarkSky International collaborated with projects around the world to mitigate the effects.Read the Article
