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When the common poorwill zips out at night to feast on moths and grasshoppers, it isn't distracted by light pollution in its Cypress Hills home. In September, the park was declared a dark-sky preserve to protect the nocturnal environment.

"The designation could have positive impacts on nocturnal birds," says Rick Goett, a program coordinator at Cypress Hills. "The light won't mess with their flight patterns."

Altitude naturally provides a clear atmosphere, making Cypress Hills one of the best astronomy viewing sites in North America. It is Canada's third official dark-sky preserve, after Ontario's Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve (see CG Jul/Aug 2000) and McDonald Park in Abbotsford, B.C.

Cypress Hills is relatively dark as it is, but park buildings and commercial development necessitate some illumination. To maintain the dark-sky designation, all future and retrofit lights will follow guidelines, including using luminary shields and minimum light levels and aiming lights downward.

"The light," says Goett, "will go only where it is intended to go."