Dark-Sky Preserve

On your next overnight visit to Fundy National Park, let your eyes drift upward and explore our newest trail: the Milky Way.

And at night you will look up at the stars.
Where I live everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found.
It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars, for you.
And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens...

Fundy was recently designated as a Dark-Sky Preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). What does it mean to be a Dark-Sky Preserve? It means that the Fundy National Park Dark-Sky Preserve is one of the best places to explore the night sky in Canada. One can think of a dark-sky preserve as an astronomy park where the night sky glows with millions of stars visible to the naked eye.

As a Dark-Sky Preserve (DSP), Fundy National Park is committed to protecting the night-time environment from the effects of artificial lighting. Educating visitors about the ecological and cultural importance of dark skies are key elements of the DSP program. Protecting the dark-sky of Fundy will benefit stargazers as well as wildlife. Many plants, animals and insects rely on the darkness of the night to forage, breed and navigate. These activities are adversely affected by light pollution.

In a DSP, artificial lighting is kept at a minimum while ensuring public safety. Light fixtures must respect dark-sky protocols to prevent excessive lighting and glare. Fundy National Park is committed to reduce artificial light pollution within the preserve’s buffer area. In the past year alone, we replaced 25 mercury vapour, metal halide, sodium street lights with light-emitting diode (LED) street lights, for an energy savings of 69% over the old lighting and with a significant reduction in light pollution.

Resources

• Parks Canada - Parks for the Milky Way
• Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC)
• RASC - Dark-Sky Preserve Guidelines
• RASC - New Brunswick Centre