On Monday, April 22, 2013, nine Hill Country residents and night sky advocates gathered in the Blanco Emergency Medical Service conference facility to help refine a training program aimed at preparing volunteers to make outdoor lighting assessments at Texas State Parks.
With the blessings of Brent Leisure, Director of Texas State Parks, Stephen Bosbach of Austin and Cindy Luongo Cassidy of Driftwood developed a multi-faceted training program to prepare volunteers across the state to conduct standardized evaluations of the outdoor lighting at state parks. The Blanco workshop was designed to beta test the training program so as to improve the content and presentation of the training materials prior to taking it statewide.
Once trained, volunteers will work with each park superintendent to assess outdoor lighting at the park and devise remedial solutions to shield or replace fixtures whose light causes excessive glare, trespasses off park property, or shines up into the night sky.
“The people of Texas look to our state parks to lead the way in environmental preservation,” said Bosbach. “Preserving our night skies by eliminating light pollution in and around our state parks is now a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department goal. We hope our training program for park volunteers will assist this effort.”
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