Light pollution limits 80% of Americans from seeing the Milky Way at night. Light pollution disorients turtles trying to see the glare of the moonlight as an indicator of water. The blue/white colors we use in lights disrupt our production of melatonin and therefore our sleep cycle.
But its not all bad news. In the face of the challenges caused by light pollution, a partnership between communities and public sectors arose to help designate Central Idaho as the nation’s first gold-tier dark sky reserve.
Today’s show is a rebroadcasting of an Idaho Environmental Forum that was presented in December featuring Astronomer Matt Benjamin and Mayor of Stanley Steve Botti. Their biographies can be found below.
January 17th is the next Idaho Environmental Forum – their annual Legislative Gala. For information on the gala and IEF, click here.
Steve Botti
Steve worked for the National Park Service for 35 years before retiring in 2007. During that time he worked in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, served as the Chief of Natural Resources Management at Yosemite National Park, and as the National Wildland Fire Program Planning Manager for the Washington Office of the National Park Service. He authored An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park in 2001, which was awarded the Henry Allan Gleason Award from the New York Botanical Garden for the outstanding publication in plant taxonomy in 2003. In 2007 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Honor Award from the Secretary of the Interior for career achievements in serving National Parks. From 1987 through 2010 he taught field botany seminars for the Yosemite Association and the Jepson Herbarium at the University of California.
Steve and his wife Vicki retired to Stanley in 2007, and he was elected President of the Stanley City Council in 2008. He has continued to serve in that position through 2017, and was elected Mayor of Stanley this past November. Outside of work, Steve spends as much time as he can enjoying rivers rafting, cross-country skiing, hiking, and the dark night sky in the Sawtooth and Boulder-White Cloud mountains.
Matt Benjamin
Matt and his family currently live in Boulder, Colorado, though Matt has been spending time in Idaho for 35 years. His family connection to Idaho began when his grandfather used to take his dad to Ketchum on the train
from Los Angeles. Matt spent the past 12 years working for the University of Colorado at Boulder as an Astronomer and the Education Programs Manager for the Fiske Planetarium. While at the Planetarium,
Matt collaborated on several NASA research grants and educational programs with our federal labs and aerospace companies. Matt is currently Board President of the Growe Foundation, which initiates school garden programs through lesson plans for 19 elementary schools in the Boulder Valley School District.
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Building A Greener Idaho 