Tres Orejas Community Website

Protect our Dark Skies: Cover windows at night, point all outside lights down, look up in wonder. Say WOW!

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Taos County and the state of New Mexico have Dark Sky Ordinances. Please read the links below and follow the ordinance to protect our Dark Skies. Though written some years ago with individual property owners in mind, businesses have been able to skirt compliance since they can pay the fines – or there has been no enforcement or proper permitting procedures to begin with regarding lighting. We all see the bright town lights every night and it gets worse each year. 

http://www.nmdarksky.org/ordinances/Taos.pdf
https://sfct.org/dark-skies/five-steps-we-can-bring-back-the-stars/
https://features.weather.com/stargaze/
https://www.fws.gov/project/dark-skies-initiative

We are many and it all adds up.

A letter written last year…

Dear Human Neighbors and all our Relatives; Bear, Mountain Lion, Bobcat, RoadRunner, Raven, Pinyon Jay, Towhee, red breasted and yellow Finch, Hummingbird of many colors, Sand Hill Crane, Golden Eagle, Red Tail Hawk, Rattle Snake, Coral Snake, Bull Snake, Rainbow Snake, Frog, Toad, Lizard, All those whom I cannot name, those who hide, Mountain behind us, Mountain before us, those that surround us, Sky above, Earth below, all who grow in and on earth, all we see and all we can’t, all our relatives and Ancestors in the sky; Stars, Planets, Moon, Meteorites, Asteroids, Water of Life that comes down upon us, I greet you all on this new year day. May it be good.

At Tres Orejas we have a tacit agreement amongst ourselves to live and let live. We help each other when we can, watch out for one another as we are able.

I’ve been stepping softly on this land since 1978. A few families lived here before then of course. John Nichols wrote and photographed the way it was in one of his books. 

Back then solar panels were unaffordable for most. There were no solar lamps to stick in the ground. We used the soft light of oil lamps and candles in our homes. We had flashlights in the glove box or the tool box. We rarely used a light to go outside. We knew how to see in the dark, learned where and how to step, and often times, spent long summer nights on our backs after the cooking fires went out, gazing up into the deep starlit sky, and of course, no extra light was needed under the full Moon. The number of stars was so astonishing, I used to describe our night skies to others like this; ‘It’s a white sky with black dots, rather than a black sky with white spots’. 

This old timer remembers when the town of Taos lights were only a small sliver on the horizon far to the southeast, and it was pitch dark all the way up to Questa. 

The term “dark skies” now comes with the word “endangered”. As more neighbors get the awesome chance to live here, naturally there are more lights. I have seen the change in the night sky. Taos night lights are awful and they fill the entire eastern horizon from north to south. Tres Orejas is now growing its own unnatural night glow. 

Unable to turn back time I do what I can to keep the light dim around my home. I try to think of all the animals and birds and other creatures who share their home with us. For them, all of our light is unnatural.

I ask us to consider preserving the dark sky here on the mesa as long as possible. Review your current habits and what you can do to keep the land here from looking like the suburbs.

You’ll find good ideas in the links as you think about your current outdoor light usage; why, where, when and how you use them. We are all learning new things each day about how to live well in Earth. I wish to be a solutionist so I’ve offered solar ground lights and indoor lamp coverings for neighbors who, unaware, had lights that pierced the dark sky and shone clear across the sagebrush mesa into my home. Neighbors made easy modifications and dark nights returned. I also ask my neighbors if my lights bother them. 

A story: One late winter afternoon, about ten years ago, Bull Elk brought his harem and yearlings to graze – about 30 in the herd – and stood only a few yards from my front door. He and I looked at one another peacefully as I held my breath and tried not to bat an eyelash. After a good long moment he sauntered away, his family following, until I lost sight of them as they disappeared over a wee knoll into  the sage, around the hill, without making a sound. They were not afraid of me. I still recall the wonder of that visit. Only once more in the last 10 years have I seen sight of an Elk herd so close by near the south ridge.

Wildlife retreat from us as the growing population of humans, including our dogs who are let to run free, keep them at bay. I wish us to deeply consider those with whom we live, both human and other than human, and try to be considerate of their needs. The dark skies aren’t only precious to me and you but to all beings.

There are few places left on earth where we can enjoy such silence and dark. This is one of them.

I wish you many blessings, health, and peace, and to all those for whom you care, be they two-legged or any other being. Please share this with others and share your tips with how you preserve our dark skies. 

Peace and good wishes in the New Year, Your friendly neighborhood NigthSkyWarrior.