This week’s Local Motion begins in space. As NASA’s Artemis 2 mission completed the first crewed lunar flyby in more than fifty years, astronaut Christina Koch looked back at our planet and found herself struck not by Earth’s beauty — but by the darkness surrounding it. “Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe,” she said.
On Colorado’s Western Slope, that darkness is still something you can step outside and see. But it’s not guaranteed. Eighty percent of the world’s population now lives somewhere the Milky Way is no longer visible. And light pollution doesn’t just rob us of the stars — it disrupts circadian rhythms in humans and wildlife alike, and has been linked to increased cancer risk. Excess artificial light, as author Craig Childs describes in his new book The Wild Dark, has become a known toxin.
The story of dark sky conservation on the Western Slope starts with Dr. Robert Grossman — retired founding faculty of the University of Colorado’s Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. He retired to land outside Norwood in the mid-2000s, heard a radio program about a dark sky community in the Wet Mountains, looked at Norwood’s four porch lights, and said: “Slam dunk.” Three years of hard work later, Norwood became the first dark sky community west of the Continental Divide.
That effort grew into a regional movement. Today, a chain of certified dark sky places runs along the Gunnison River — from Curecanti National Recreation Area through Black Canyon of the Gunnison to Gunnison Gorge — forming more than 100 miles of protected night sky. Towns including Norwood, Nucla, Naturita, Ridgway, and Paonia are certified communities. And Grossman is now pursuing a Dark Sky Reserve for all of San Miguel County, which would be only the third in the country.
The Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition’s new executive director, Olivia Bobbitt, is working to make the movement more accessible. Simple steps — closing curtains at night, shielding outdoor lights, switching to warmer-tone bulbs — make a real difference. The coalition is also seeking a new board president. Learn more about protecting our dark skies at darksky.org.
Credits
Featuring Dr. Robert Grossman, Olivia Bobbitt (Executive Director, Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition), and Craig Childs (author, The Wild Dark, Torrey House Press). NASA audio courtesy of NASA’s official YouTube channel. Music by Kyle Preston, Yair Cohen, and Ben Bentele.
