The Town of Breckenridge is the latest community to join Colorado’s 19 certified “Dark Sky Places” and officially the first resort town to make the list.
“People already go to Breckenridge to ski,” said Michael Rymer, a program organizer with DarkSky International — the nonprofit organization responsible for issuing Dark Sky certifications. “But no matter what night of the year it is, whether it be ski season or summertime, the night sky is always going to be there, and we have to protect it.”
“Places like Breckenridge take that to heart and know they're going to try to market themselves as a leader in protecting the night sky,” he said.
The aim of the program is to reduce light pollution and make it easier for stargazers to view the night sky. But becoming a Dark Sky community doesn’t happen overnight.
According to town officials, Breckenridge has been working towards reducing its light pollution for almost two decades. In that time, the ski town has retrofitted more than 900 streetlights and offered multiple educational and outreach programs, including Nordic skiing with an astrophysicist.
And Breckenridge Resort doesn’t offer night skiing. Julia Puester, the ski town’s assistant manager, says that definitely made receiving the Dark Sky certification slightly easier.
“Light pollution really is a pretty easy type of pollution to reverse,” said Puester. “The town's primary purpose was just really enhancing the quality of life for our residents and our visitors by having less light pollution. We're protecting our environment, our ecosystem here, as well as saving money and energy.”
Breckenridge’s Dark Sky certification comes shortly after Gov. Jared Polis launched a statewide effort to get 12 state parks also certified with the program earlier this year.
