Join the Vancouver Audubon Society for this month’s guest speaker event, Mary Coolidge of the Bird Alliance of Oregon.
The night is naturally lit only by the moon and stars, and life on this planet evolved under regular cycles of bright days and dark nights. But in the last century, the night has become liberally colonized with artificial light. Recent research shows night sky brightness increasing globally by nearly 10% per year. Most of us live in cities that are ablaze with light—from billboards to parking lot lighting to street lights—even while we sleep. Not only does this obscure the Milky Way and stars from 80% of North Americans, but the over- abundance of light at night also has dire ecological consequences—not just for the millions of migrating birds that use the stars to navigate, but also for mammals, amphibians, fish and plants, as well as for human health.
Join us to talk about the impacts of light pollution, and learn about how you can help in the effort to preserve starry skies while simultaneously maintaining safe and vibrant nighttime cityscapes.
Mary Coolidge has been on Bird Alliance of Oregon's Conservation team since 2008, and serves as the BirdSafe Campaign Coordinator, working to reduce hazards for birds in the built environment. Mary is dedicated to improving efforts to make urban environments more hospitable to wildlife and helping connect people to nature and place right here in the city. Mary splits her time between BAO and the Oregon Zoo’s California Condor breeding program.
Regular Vancouver Audubon meeting agenda:
6:30 pm – 6:45 pm - Social time, share bird sightings.
6:45 pm – 7:00 pm - Announcements
7:00 pm – 8:15 pm - Guest Speaker Program
Programs are held the first Tuesday of the month except Jan, July, & August. All are welcome, we hope you will join us!
Contact Jackson Wolfe for more information at Jackson@vancouveraudubon.org. Have ideas for a speaker? Please send all topic, speaker, and program suggestions and requests to Jackson.
Learn about other upcoming events with the VAS at vancouveraudubon.org