NIGHT SKY AND DARK ENVIRONMENTS: BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AT NIGHT ON BLM-MANAGED LANDS TECHNICAL NOTE 457 11 Recreation, Wilderness, Cultural, and Education Values BLM-managed lands are an important resource for nighttime recreational and educational activities. Several BLM visitor areas offer staff-led night sky programs (Mimiaga 2017). Night sky resources on BLM lands provide opportunities for aesthetic, spiritual, wilderness, religious, and cultural experiences. Astrotourism is an important recreation activity that brings important economic benefits to nearby communities (see Section 3.3.6 for discussion of economic effects of light pollution). Regardless of whether these activities occur on BLM-managed lands or other lands, the vast, generally undeveloped public lands are preserving dark skies throughout much of the Western U.S. to the benefit of many federal, state, or regional locations, including communities that are international destinations for astrotourism and other nighttime recreation. Ecological Value BLM-managed lands provide important ecological functions, including habitat and migratory pathways, for thousands of species of animals, some threatened and endangered. Many of these animal species are crepuscular (primarily active at twilight) or nocturnal (primarily active at night) and rely on the abundant and undisturbed naturally dark environments found on BLM-managed lands. BLM-managed lands also have many rare plants, some of which rely on the length of the night to determine proper season for budding, flowering, and other life cycle activities. These plants may also rely on nocturnal insect, bat, and bird pollination (Bennie et al. 2016; Knop et al. 2017). Winter campers view the northern lights at Caribou Bluff in the White Mountains National Recreation Area in Alaska. The Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado has regular, well-attended night sky programs. The bobcat, mountain lion, and great gray owl are crepuscular and nocturnal animals found on BLM-managed lands.
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