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Oregon Is Now Home to the World's Largest Dark Sky Sanctuary

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Thursday, March 21, 2024

Officials have been working toward the designation for four years. Travel Southern Oregon Calling all stargazers: Oregon is now home to the largest Dark Sky Sanctuary in the world. Earlier this month, DarkSky International certified a remote, 2.5 million-acre area in the southeastern part of the state. From this rugged swath of high desert landscape dotted with sagebrush, visitors who stay up late can see large numbers of stars, planets and other celestial bodies. “It’s surprising sometimes to see that many stars all at once,” says Bob Hackett, executive director of Travel Southern Oregon, to the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano. “It catches you, and it makes you pause because you feel like you can touch it … That vastness of the whole cosmos up there—it almost makes you get closer to the people you’re with on the ground.” DarkSky International is a nonprofit that certifies areas that have developed comprehensive protections against light pollution. To date, the group has certified more than 200 Dark Sky Places in 22 countries. The newly certified area is called the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary, and officials spent four years working to earn the designation. They’ve implemented a lighting management plan that will help preserve the region’s unobstructed night sky views, which includes measures such as installing motion detectors and reducing the number of lights that point upward. Additionally, every light source within the sanctuary’s boundaries will need to comply with DarkSky International’s standards within the next decade, reports KLCC’s Nathan Wilk. In Dark Sky Sanctuaries, travelers can marvel at the cosmos without interference from light pollution. Travel Southern Oregon These efforts will not only benefit stargazers and astronomers but also help protect the many animals that call the region home, such as sage grouse, bighorn sheep, migratory birds and white-tailed jackrabbits. Light pollution can disrupt breeding, migration and other wildlife behaviors. Moths, for example, can congregate around street lights to the point of exhaustion, while sea turtle hatchlings can die after becoming disoriented by artificial lighting near the shore. Humans, too, suffer because of light pollution, which is getting worse year after year. In addition to obscuring views of the night sky, it is also a health hazard. Studies have linked light pollution to an array of problems, from sleep disorders and depression to obesity and diabetes. The new Oregon sanctuary is now the biggest in the world. But local officials want to make it even bigger: They hope someday to expand the sanctuary into neighboring Harney and Malheur counties, covering a total of 11 million acres, per KLCC. If they achieve this goal, they’ll have protected roughly one-fifth of the entire state, reports AFAR’s Bailey Berg. “As the population of Oregon and the trend of light pollution continue to rise, the unparalleled scale and quality of the Outback’s dark skies will long serve as a starry refuge to people and wildlife alike,” says Dawn Nilson, an environmental consultant who helped get the area certified, in a statement. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary covers 2.5 million acres in the southeastern part of the state

Milky Way above two people
Officials have been working toward the designation for four years. Travel Southern Oregon

Calling all stargazers: Oregon is now home to the largest Dark Sky Sanctuary in the world.

Earlier this month, DarkSky International certified a remote, 2.5 million-acre area in the southeastern part of the state. From this rugged swath of high desert landscape dotted with sagebrush, visitors who stay up late can see large numbers of stars, planets and other celestial bodies.

“It’s surprising sometimes to see that many stars all at once,” says Bob Hackett, executive director of Travel Southern Oregon, to the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano. “It catches you, and it makes you pause because you feel like you can touch it … That vastness of the whole cosmos up there—it almost makes you get closer to the people you’re with on the ground.”

DarkSky International is a nonprofit that certifies areas that have developed comprehensive protections against light pollution. To date, the group has certified more than 200 Dark Sky Places in 22 countries.

The newly certified area is called the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary, and officials spent four years working to earn the designation. They’ve implemented a lighting management plan that will help preserve the region’s unobstructed night sky views, which includes measures such as installing motion detectors and reducing the number of lights that point upward.

Additionally, every light source within the sanctuary’s boundaries will need to comply with DarkSky International’s standards within the next decade, reports KLCC’s Nathan Wilk.

Shooting star in dark night sky
In Dark Sky Sanctuaries, travelers can marvel at the cosmos without interference from light pollution. Travel Southern Oregon

These efforts will not only benefit stargazers and astronomers but also help protect the many animals that call the region home, such as sage grouse, bighorn sheep, migratory birds and white-tailed jackrabbits.

Light pollution can disrupt breeding, migration and other wildlife behaviors. Moths, for example, can congregate around street lights to the point of exhaustion, while sea turtle hatchlings can die after becoming disoriented by artificial lighting near the shore.

Humans, too, suffer because of light pollution, which is getting worse year after year. In addition to obscuring views of the night sky, it is also a health hazard. Studies have linked light pollution to an array of problems, from sleep disorders and depression to obesity and diabetes.

The new Oregon sanctuary is now the biggest in the world. But local officials want to make it even bigger: They hope someday to expand the sanctuary into neighboring Harney and Malheur counties, covering a total of 11 million acres, per KLCC. If they achieve this goal, they’ll have protected roughly one-fifth of the entire state, reports AFAR’s Bailey Berg.

“As the population of Oregon and the trend of light pollution continue to rise, the unparalleled scale and quality of the Outback’s dark skies will long serve as a starry refuge to people and wildlife alike,” says Dawn Nilson, an environmental consultant who helped get the area certified, in a statement.

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Microplastics found in human ovary follicular fluid for the first time

Peer-reviewed study’s findings raises fresh question on the toxic substances’ impact on fertilityMicroplastics have been found for the first time in human ovary follicular fluid, raising a new round of questions about the ubiquitous and toxic substances’ potential impact on women’s fertility.The new peer-reviewed research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety checked for microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at a fertility clinic in Salerno, Italy, and detected them in 14. Continue reading...

Microplastics have been found for the first time in human ovary follicular fluid, raising a new round of questions about the ubiquitous and toxic substances’ potential impact on women’s fertility.The new peer-reviewed research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety checked for microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at a fertility clinic in Salerno, Italy, and detected them in 14.Follicular fluid provides essential nutrients and biochemical signals for developing eggs. Contaminating that process with bits of plastic quite likely has implications for fertility, hormonal balance and overall reproductive health, the authors wrote.The findings represent a major step toward figuring out how and why microplastics impact women’s reproductive health, but are also “very alarming”, Luigi Montano, a researcher at the University of Rome and study lead author, said.“This discovery should serve as an important warning signal about the invasiveness of these emerging contaminants in the female reproductive system,” the study states.From the top of Mt Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, microplastics and smaller nanoplastics have been detected throughout the environment. Food is thought to be a main exposure route: recent studies found them in all meat and produce products tested.Microplastics are particularly dangerous because they can contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals. That includes highly toxic compounds like PFAS, bisphenol and phthalates that are linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption or developmental toxicity.Microplastics have been found throughout the human body and can cross the brain and placental barriers.Montano’s latest paper is part of a larger project he’s leading for which he has also detected microplastics in human urine and semen, and examines the impacts on fertility. He said he suspects microplastics are among chemicals driving plummeting sperm counts and a drop in overall sperm quality.“We have proven this decline, especially in areas where pollution is bad,” Montano said.Though men are more susceptible to the substance’s toxic effects, he added, women are also possibly impacted. Animal research has linked the presence of microplastics to ovarian dysfunction and health problems, like reduced oocyte maturation, and a lower capacity for fertilization. Another study on mice showed alterations to ovarian tissue.The paper notes a “possible presence of correlation between the concentration of microplastics” and reproductive health in the women who participated in the new study.Montano added that the bisphenol, phthalates, PFAS and other highly toxic chemicals that use microplastics as a “trojan horse” to get into the body, and into the ovaries, are “very dangerous”. The chemicals are already well-known for disrupting hormones and harming women’s reproductive health.The follicular fluid paper offers a “very important finding”, said Xiaozhong Yu, a University of New Mexico microplastics researcher, but he added that more work is needed to determine the dose and level of exposure at which adverse effects start to happen.“This is the work in the next phase – we need to quantify,” Yu said. His team is also attempting to answer some of those questions with broader epidemiological research.Montano’s team is doing similar work, and he’s spearheading research that is trying to determine how much reducing the use of plastic in the kitchen and eating an organic diet, will reduce the level of microplastics in the body.The substances’ ubiquity makes it difficult to avoid, but reducing the amount of plastic used in the kitchen – from packaging to storage to utensils – can likely reduce exposures. Pesticides can contain microplastics, or in some cases are a form of microplastics, so eating organic may help.Experts also advise that people avoid heating plastic, or putting hot food and liquid in plastic.Single-use paper coffee cups, for example, can shed trillions of bits of plastic when hot liquid is added. Similarly, tea bags can release billions of particles, and microwavable plastic is also a problem. Plastic utensils that briefly come into contact with hot pans can also leach chemicals, and wood and stainless steel alternatives are better.

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Endangered sea turtle populations racing to recovery

A new global survey finds that endangered sea turtles show signs of recovery in a majority of places they are found worldwide.

Endangered sea turtles show signs of recovery in a majority of places where they’re found worldwide, according to a new global survey released Thursday.“Many of the turtle populations have come back, though some haven’t,” said Duke ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved with the research. “Overall, the sea turtle story is one of the real conservation success stories.”A hawksbill turtle underwater in Indonesia.APThe study looked at 48 populations of sea turtles around the world. Scientists measured the impacts of threats such as hunting, pollution, coastal development and climate change to the marine animals. In more than half of the areas studied, threats are declining overall, the study found.But there are some exceptions. Sea turtle populations in the Atlantic Ocean are more likely to be recovering than those in Pacific waters. And leatherback turtles are not faring as well as other species.Leatherback sea turtle on a beach in Trinidad.APGlobally, leatherbacks are considered vulnerable to extinction, but many groups are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.All seven of the regions where leatherbacks are found face high environmental risks, said study co-author Bryan Wallace, a wildlife ecologist at Ecolibrium in Colorado.Leatherback turtles are famous for making the longest known marine migrations of any animal — with some individuals swimming as many as 3,700 miles (5,955 kilometers) each way. That feat moves them through a wide swath of regions and may expose them to unique risks, he said.A leatherback turtle in Trinidad.APMeanwhile, green turtles are still considered endangered globally, but their populations show signs of recovery in many regions of the world, researchers found.“By ending commercial harvests and allowing them time to rebound, their populations are now doing really well” in coastal waters off many regions of Mexico and the U.S., said co-author Michelle María Early Capistrán, a Stanford University researcher who has conducted fieldwork in both countries.A loggerhead turtle underwater in Belize.APSea turtles were protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, and Mexico banned all captures of sea turtles in 1990. But it took a few decades for the results of these actions — alongside efforts to protect nesting beaches and reduce accidental bycatch in fishing — to show up in population trends, she said.Around the world, the problem of sea turtles dying after accidentally becoming entangled in fishing gear remains a major threat, said Wallace. New technologies are being developed to spare turtles, but they must be accepted and used regularly by diverse fishing communities to be effective, he added.A young olive Ridley turtle in Costa Rica in 2018.APThe survey was published in the journal Endangered Species Research and is the first update in more than a decade.-- Christina Larson / Associated Press

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Endangered Sea Turtle Populations Show Signs of Recovery in More Than Half the World, Survey Finds

A new global survey finds that endangered sea turtles show signs of recovery in a majority of places where they’re found worldwide

WASHINGTON (AP) — Endangered sea turtles show signs of recovery in a majority of places where they’re found worldwide, according to a new global survey released Thursday. “Many of the turtle populations have come back, though some haven’t,” said Duke ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved with the research. “Overall, the sea turtle story is one of the real conservation success stories." The study looked at 48 populations of sea turtles around the world. Scientists measured the impacts of threats such as hunting, pollution, coastal development and climate change to the marine animals. In more than half of the areas studied, threats are declining overall, the study found.But there are some exceptions. Sea turtle populations in the Atlantic Ocean are more likely to be recovering than those in Pacific waters. And leatherback turtles are not faring as well as other species. Globally, leatherbacks are considered vulnerable to extinction, but many groups are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. All seven of the regions where leatherbacks are found face high environmental risks, said study co-author Bryan Wallace, a wildlife ecologist at Ecolibrium in Colorado. Leatherback turtles are famous for making the longest known marine migrations of any animal – with some individuals swimming as many as 3,700 miles (5,955 kilometers) each way. That feat moves them through a wide swath of regions and may expose them to unique risks, he said.Meanwhile, green turtles are still considered endangered globally, but their populations show signs of recovery in many regions of the world, researchers found.“By ending commercial harvests and allowing them time to rebound, their populations are now doing really well” in coastal waters off many regions of Mexico and the U.S., said co-author Michelle María Early Capistrán, a Stanford University researcher who has conducted fieldwork in both countries.Sea turtles were protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, and Mexico banned all captures of sea turtles in 1990. But it took a few decades for the results of these actions – alongside efforts to protect nesting beaches and reduce accidental bycatch in fishing – to show up in population trends, she said.Around the world, the problem of sea turtles dying after accidentally becoming entangled in fishing gear remains a major threat, said Wallace. New technologies are being developed to spare turtles, but they must be accepted and used regularly by diverse fishing communities to be effective, he added.The survey was published in the journal Endangered Species Research and is the first update in more than a decade. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

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Watch These Elephants Form an 'Alert Circle' as an Earthquake Shakes San Diego, Protecting Their Young at the Center

Footage from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park shows the large mammals huddling together around the herd's calves

Watch These Elephants Form an ‘Alert Circle’ as an Earthquake Shakes San Diego, Protecting Their Young at the Center Footage from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park shows the large mammals huddling together around the herd’s calves Sara Hashemi - Daily Correspondent April 17, 2025 11:14 a.m. Elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park huddled together, facing outward, in a behavior called an "alert circle" after an earthquake hit. Screenshot via San Diego Zoo Safari Park When a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook their enclosure on Monday, a group of African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park instinctively sprang into action to protect each other. The moment was caught on the camera as the quake rocked Southern California, offering a rare glimpse at how elephants react to danger. In the footage, the large mammals run around initially, then older elephants Ndlula, Umngani and Khosi move to form a ring around calves Zuli and Mkhaya, in what experts call an “alert circle.” Zuli tries to stay on the outside with the adults, in an apparent attempt to act courageously. His mother and another elephant who helped raise him pat him with their trunks, as if to say: “Things are OK,” and “stay back in the circle,” as Mindy Albright, a curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, tells Julie Watson at the Associated Press. Elephants are highly social animals, says Joshua Plotnik, an animal behavior researcher at Hunter College, to NPR’s Rebecca Rosman. Their instinct to band together is clear in the formation of the circle. “They bunch together, the adults on the outside facing out, and then they’ll push the younger individuals into the middle,” he says. Such a behavior is “a natural response to perceived threats that helps protect younger elephants and the herd as a whole,” writes the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on social media. “It’s so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing—that any parent does, which is protect their children,” adds Albright to the AP. Research indicates African elephants can sense vibrations through their ears and feet. The massive animals create low-frequency seismic vibrations in the ground as they walk and vocalize. Other elephants may pick up on these signals, offering a long-distance form of communication. This ability likely helped them react to the quake. “For them to just be so in tune with their environment and paying attention to the environmental cues, it’s really something that you want to see them still hone in on,” Albright says to Kasha Patel at the Washington Post. “It’s a measure of their health to see them respond like this.” The footage is also a reminder of how much we still have to learn about the animals, adds Plotnik to NPR—and the importance of protecting them. African elephant populations have seen a drastic decline over the last 50 years. Asian elephant numbers, meanwhile, have dropped by half in three generations. “The Asian and African elephants are in imminent danger of going extinct, and it’s crucially important that we continue to learn more about their behavior and cognition if we’re going to come up with ways to protect them and conserve them in the wild,” Plotnik says to NPR. The behavior recently caught on video can offer scientists insight into elephants’ social responses to threats. An aftershock hit San Diego about an hour after the video was taken, and the animals repeated the behavior, according to the AP. But they went back to their daily lives once everything seemed safe. After the quake, the zoo writes, it was “business as usual” for the elephants again. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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A Russian Bucket Brigade Helps Toads and Frogs Cross the Road to Get to a Spawning Site

It happens every spring along a section of road north of Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg: Volunteers, some in yellow vests, patrol near the Sestroretsk Bog natural reserve, and become crossing guards for thousands of toads and frogs

A NATURE RESERVE NEAR SESTRORETSK, Russia (AP) — It happens every spring along a section of road north of Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg: Volunteers, many in yellow vests, patrol near the Sestroretsk Bog nature reserve.They serve as crossing guards for thousands of toads and frogs, who are trying to navigate toward their spawning sites.There usually isn’t much traffic, but even the relatively low number of vehicles still would kill up to 1,000 toads each year, said Konstantin Milta, senior herpetology researcher with the St. Petersburg Zoological Institute.“On large highways, the death rate is monstrous. Sometimes the surface of the road can be covered with a layer of dead animals,” Milta told The Associated Press.On this section, a large reddish-orange sign that features one of the amphibians warns motorists: “Attention! Slow down! Toads are crossing the road.”When the volunteers find one of the creatures, they pick it up, put it in a plastic bucket and make a record before depositing it in the grass on the other side.“So cute!” one of the volunteers said, referring to how the toad clung to her pink glove.In the Sestroretsk Bog reserve, “toads migrate from the forest to the bay in the spring, reproduce in the reed beds in the coastal strip, lay eggs, and then, somewhere in mid-May, they leave the water and migrate back to the forest,” Milta said. “So they cross this road twice,” he added.Members of this bucket brigade have been volunteering their time since 2016, said Viktoria Samuta, head of the environmental education section of the Directorate of Protected Areas of St. Petersburg.Depending on the weather, the work begins in mid-April and continues for a month or longer, she said, with more than 700 volunteers take part every year.Last year, Samuta said, volunteers helped move thousands of specimens.“It is very good that in recent years there have been more and more people ready to help living beings,” she said. “Our mission is, precisely, to make people love our nature more and more, and be willing to help it.”Volunteer Diana Kulinichenko called it a nice break from her studies.“I’ve been whining all semester that I want to go to the forest," Kulinichenko said. "And here’s the forest, the toads, you help the toads, you’re in the forest, you breathe clean air. And I just really want to volunteer, so after this I’ll be looking for where else I can do it.”Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

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