Dark Sky Preservation in Flagstaff and in Arizona

Dark sky protection has been a tradition in Flagstaff, Arizona for 65 years, beginning with a 1958 ordinance banning advertising searchlights in the city. In 2001, Flagstaff became the first city to be designated a Dark Sky Community by the International Dark Sky Association, and since then, several other communities and places in Arizona have achieved IDA dark sky designations. Maintaining the quality of the night sky has been an ongoing effort in policy, advocacy, and collaboration with numerous organizations, and with impacts and benefits that extend well beyond Arizona’s $4.5 billion astronomy and optics industry. In this talk, I will summarize those efforts, discuss best practices for achieving dark sky protection, provide some examples of successful outcomes at the local and state levels, and offer some thoughts on how individual outcomes can serve as models for other communities.