Public Lands & Dark Skies 2024
The 2024 Dark Skies Project: Listening to What’s Being Said about Dark Skies Conservation in and around Bears Ears (By Alice O’Neal-Freeman, ‘27)
The Public Lands Survey team embarks on its third year of research this summer, directed by Cyndy Hines. This is the second year where the team is digging deeper into Dark Skies conservation in the Rocky Mountain West, a topic of great importance as population growth and development in the Rocky Mountain West rapidly increase. Population increase in The Rocky Mountain West is one of the sharpest in the country. The unimpeded night sky has been essential to many peoples in this region throughout history evidenced by rock art of complex celestial events and indigenous creation stories, ceremonies, and other practices and beliefs. This summer, the team hopes to learn more about its importance to people today.
Student researchers are surveying and researching near Bears Ears area in collaboration with the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition. Bears Ears National Monument currently encompasses 1,351,849 acres of Southeastern Utah. It is named after a pair of buttes that rise high out of the earth, resembling the ears of a bear. There are five tribes that have ancestral connections to the region, making up the Inter-Tribal Coalition. The Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni. The protected area includes pictograms, petroglyphs, dinosaur bones and tracks, firewood, recreational roads for ATVs and four-wheelers, and land that has been used for cattle grazing. In 2009 the FBI and BLM conducted one of the US’s largest raids of stolen archaeological and cultural artifacts in Blanding, UT, a town near Bears Ears. Bears Ears was initially made a monument in order to prevent such looting, but a monument designation also prevents gas companies from taking advantage of the oil in the area. Former President Obama designated the area a national monument of over a million acres in 2016. In 2017, Trump reduced its size by 85%. n 2021, president Biden restored the monument to its original size.
In 2022 the BLM, the Forest service, and the Inter-tribal coalition began co-management of Bears Ears National Monument. One Dark Skies researcher, Natasha, has surveyed for awareness of the new co-management plan.
Growth and development in surrounding towns is a growing concern for some as populations and recreation activities increase in nearby Moab, Monticello, Blanding and Bluff. More people and more development usually means more artificial lights-- something many residents see as a threat to their way of life and their ability to see the stars as night.
Many indigenous people who have historically inhabited this land have deep cultural connections to the stars. One researcher, Mustafa Sameen, ‘26, has surveyed to understand this better. Some want to protect the Milky Way view by obtaining the designation of Dark Sky Park for the monument. Megan O’Brien, ‘25, has taken artificial light measurements at night and tracking development in order to predict the impact nearby towns could have on Bears Ears night sky visibility in the future.
But would a Dark Sky Park designation attract more tourism and development itself? Could this damage the land because there is not much infrastructure in place? Some say designating it a national monument in the first place attracted more tourists than they have the facilities to accommodate. Many living in Southeast Utah have conflicting views of where to go from here. Some wish it was not even made a monument in the first place. Some feel the region is now a bigger political stage, and the residents’ preferences for land use are not being prioritized.
Alison, Megan, Mustafa, and Natasha are each doing their own project this summer. They are all connected to the pervasiveness of light pollution. They have prepared by completing a workshop on interviewing and doing research for multiple blocks before heading out into the field.
Research Projects
Meet the Team
Alison Mueller-Hickler
Alison Mueller-Hickler ‘26 is a sophomore from Katy, Texas. She is a member of the Cross-Country and Track teams, a RA, and is on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for Colorado College. She is majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in History. Alison became involved with State of the Rockies after attending a tabling event in Block 3 in her freshman year. The lack of research involving light pollution sparked her interest in answering questions regarding how artificial night-time lighting affects humans and animals. She hopes that her summer research can have policy implications and will contribute to the research field.
Megan O'Brien
Megan O’Brien’s ‘25 project role within the Dark Skies team for State of the Rockies will be two faceted. Broadly speaking, she will be looking at different data sources to identify a correlation between park designation, subsequent development, and light pollution. Utilizing GIS data, aerial imagery, historical photos, light data, sound data, and interviews I hope to create a well-rounded story behind light pollution near Bears Ears. The second part of her project will be more art focused to create a narrative around her research in the Bears Ears area. This part is evolving, and she expects it will continue to evolve!!
Mustafa Sameen
Mustafa Sameen ‘25 is a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science at Colorado College. Passionate about environmental conservation and the intersection of technology with cultural practices, Mustafa is currently engaged in research focused on the whether the members of the 5-tribes Bears Ears coalition are concerned light pollution will alter their connection to the cosmos through traditional ways. Mustafa aims to explore how increasing light pollution affects the traditional cultural practices of the Indigenous tribes associated with the area. Through this research, he seeks to develop technical solutions that support the preservation of both natural and cultural heritage.
Natasha Thomas
Natasha Thomas’ ‘24 project is a qualitative exploration of public opinion regarding use of land, specifically that protected as Bears Ears National Monument. She will use interviews of individuals living in various communities in and around Bears Ears, to collect opinions from residents of areas designated as environmentally unjust. Through also collecting demographic information (such as ethnicity, age, and lifestyle), she hopes to “map” public opinion as it exists on the land on top of various other factors, to understand more about the complexity of individuals who share the space known as Bears Ears National Monument.”