Light Pollution By Mono Lake On Track To Increase

Light pollution is increasingly confirmed as negatively affecting human health, the health of various animal, insect and plant species, and the science of astronomy. It also affects tourism, and therefore local economies.

It is often said that people don’t fully understand what they have until it’s gone. This may be the case with Mono County. A major 100-unit apartment complex development is on track to be approved by the Mono County Board of Supervisors on Monday June 29, 2020. Here’s the latest update:

Tioga Inn project threatens Mono Lake views and creates harmful impacts for the Lee Vining community, Mono County, and the gateway to Yosemite National Park
“This is a critical moment for public comment. The Tioga Inn project threatens to bring a host of significant adverse impacts…”
https://www.monolake.org/today/2020/06/23/tioga-inn-project-threatens-mono-lake-views-and-creates-harmful-impacts-for-the-lee-vining-community-mono-county-and-the-gateway-to-yosemite-national-park/

The Eastern Sierra has the benefit of being shielded from much development. Urban development has has been limited in the region due to the scarcity of water rights. The light pollution of the Central Valley is somewhat shielded by the Sierra Nevada. Night photography has been increasing in popularity over the last decade, and the businesses and residents of Mono County have benefited from the trend. Many areas of Mono County have the clear potential to be designated an International Dark Sky Place to give the region a flow of travelers less tied to seasonally limited activities like fishing season or fall colors, but the window of opportunity for that may also quickly close.

In August 2019 I became aware of a large proposed motel and housing development that would greatly expand the buildings and light pollution visible from Mono Lake. The proposal was open for public comment:

Action alert: Threat to scenic Mono Basin, letters needed by August 21
www.monolake.org/today/2019/08/15/action-alert-threat-to-…

The development is planned for the area around the Mobil Station and Mono Lake Overlook at the Hwy 120 / 395 intersection. In addition to other negative factors, it would spread the existing light pollution from what’s seen in these 2007-2017 photos, and it would also be clearly visible in daylight from South Tufa.

Apparently prior comment periods haven’t been particularly useful. Here’s an update on the project from April 2020:

Mono County Planning Commission disappoints; Board of Supervisors to vote soon on Tioga Inn project
“Despite overwhelming opposition from the public, on Thursday the Mono County Planning Commission voted 4-0 to approve the Tioga Inn project with few modifications to the final plan and design.”
https://www.monolake.org/today/2020/04/18/mono-county-planning-commission-disappoints-board-of-supervisors-to-vote-soon-on-tioga-inn-project/

It’s not clear why they had a comment period at all if the comments themselves would be utterly ignored, but that sort of disconnect between the government bureaucracies and those they supposedly serve seems to be a sad reality of politics and governance these days.

How could Mono County instead better take advantage of its dark sky resource? The International Dark Sky Association has a program for designating and recognizing Dark Sky Places, as described on their Web site.

The International Dark Sky Places Program offers six types of designations:

1. 1. International Dark Sky Communities
      Communities are legally organized cities and towns that adopt quality outdoor lighting ordinances and undertake efforts to educate residents about the importance of dark skies.
   2. International Dark Sky Parks
      Parks are publicly- or privately-owned spaces protected for natural conservation that implement good outdoor lighting and provide dark sky programs for visitors.
   3. International Dark Sky Reserves
      Reserves consist of a dark “core” zone surrounded by a populated periphery where policy controls are enacted to protect the darkness of the core.
   4. International Dark Sky Sanctuaries
      Sanctuaries are the most remote (and often darkest) places in the world whose conservation state is most fragile.
   5. Urban Night Sky Places
      UNSPs are sites near or surrounded by large urban environs whose planning and design actively promote an authentic nighttime experience in the midst of significant artificial light at night, and that otherwise do not qualify for designation within any other International Dark Sky Places category.
   6. Dark Sky Friendly Developments of Distinction
      Dark Sky Friendly Developments of Distinction recognize subdivisions, master planned communities, and unincorporated neighborhoods and townships whose planning actively promotes a more natural night sky but does not qualify them for the International Dark Sky Community designation.

Mono County already has some lighting ordinances, but I’ve been encouraging the County and its residents to take greater advantage of its dark sky resource for a decade now. I’d hate to see it “miss the boat” on the additional recognition and economic benefit it could be receiving under these programs. I do have a personal stake in not having the quality of my night photography workshops eroded, but my photography workshops also support significant revenue and employment at many motels, restaurants, gas stations, they supply tax revenues for local government, and I’ve raised significant sums for building stabilization at Bodie via the Bodie Foundation, and for the ecology of the Mono Basin via seminars in support of the Mono Lake Committee.

Light pollution certainly isn’t the only concern over this project (some others are detailed here), but I can assure you that the growing trend of night sky tourism that already occurs in Mono County will shift to other, darker places as the resource erodes.

Just this winter Mono County replaced street lights in Lee Vining with extremely bright blue-temperature lights.  The town is brighter than it has ever been in its history, and is more luminous (I would estimate) by a factor of two from across the landscape. The lights point down, but are not shielded, and they are a tragic overkill.  It would have been easy to purchase a much warmer temp/color of lights that could have easily illuminated as much of the street area for significantly fewer lumens.  No one seems to question or care (Covid fatigue is afflicting all) about street lighting brightness, but there are a handful of people in town that are scratching their heads as to “why so bright!?”.

What happened with the Mono County project?