jim-story

The genesis of the idea came as my friend Wes Boyd and I had coffee one morning.

Some years earlier, a development company had purchased several farms which, together,
contained three small natural ponds, all spring-fed, but with a nearby stream. The purchase
was about 2,500 acres. The company designed a 500 acre lake, to be fed by the stream,
and which "ate" the existing ponds after the stream was dammed.

About the time the company was prepared to start selling housing sites, the State of Michigan
changed the rules relative to sewage, which suddenly required the company to treat sewage
rather than having homeowners put in individual septic tanks as they built their homes.

The company essentially abandoned the site and the project. I began to lobby (for) the State
of Michigan to buy it, which eventually happened---I have no idea if my urging had anything
to do with that decision.

At any rate, the state originally declared the entire parcel, which did not have so much as one
house on it (in a fairly populous county, and with the sky-glow from Ann Arbor, Detroit,
Toledo, and some cities to the west clearly visible) as, I think, a Recreation Area, which is a
euphemism for "undeveloped, but okay to hike or hunt."

Later, the state decided to add a state park within the area--my guess is, about 1/3 of the land.

It was at this point that Wes and I began to talk about having the site declared a Dark Sky
Preserve, which was a term we came up with on our own, not knowing if anyone else had ever
created such a thing, but knowing about the many efforts in Tucson, San Diego and other areas
to maintain dark skies. We were both avid amateur astronomers.

As the development of the State Park progressed, we approached our State Representative,
Tim Walberg. Actually, we shanghaied him---and took him to the planetarium at nearby Adrian
College to show him, using the rim lights, the dramatic effects of skyglow on the night sky. He,
fortunately, had fished on lakes in the much-darker northern parts of Michigan, so he understood
immediately and agreed to help us out.

I drafted a proposed piece of legislation that would have banned any unshielded light within the
confines of the state owned land, and would further require shielding any new or replacement
lighting within a radius of something like 15 miles, even on private lands.

Tim refused that version, thinking it would have no chance of success. He had the House bill
writers draft a new version that covered only the lands within the park.

Tim, with lots of testifying through various committees by Wes and me, managed to get the bill
through the house, and later, it went through the senate and the governor signed it into law.

During this lengthy legislative process, Wes and I were also lobbying the Michigan Natural
Resources Commission (MNRC) to adopt similar rules for ALL state owned land, and particularly
for parks and recreation areas. Our hidden agenda was to get them to shield the lights on a then
brand-new prison in Adrian, just a few miles from the Lake Hudson site. We were finally able to
get on the agenda of a MNRC meeting in Muskegon, on the coast of Lake Michigan. We lined up
the Muskegon Astronomy Club to be there in numbers to support us. We were only given 5
minutes to present our case, which I did.

When I finished my spiel, the chairman basically scoffed at the idea and was ready to pass on it.
He said something like, "I don't think anyone in Michigan would be interested in this idea." At
which point Wes and I asked permission to come forward. We were able to hand him a copy of
the brand new law, and the pen with which the Governor had signed the Lake Hudson Dark Sky
Preserve Act into law that very morning, in Lansing. The timing was a complete coincidence.
Needless to say, that got the attention of the Commission which, a few weeks later, voluntarily
adopted the terms of the Act for all state parks and game areas (not prisons!)

I do not think they have done much to enforce that, and I really don't know if it was ever revoked,
but at least it started people thinking.

The original act had a 10 year sunset clause, which was added as a compromise in the early stages.
With a lot of work, the Jackson Astronomy Club was able to remove the sunset provision before
the act expired, so it is now permanent.

The site has been very popular. Even though I have put astronomy on the back burner for the past
8 years, I know that several clubs from around Michigan have used it regularly, and it is not unusual
to go out to the site at night and find a number of telescopes in use. But, best of all, and most
important, are probably those people who are camping or night fishing out there and don't even
know it is a protected sky, but who enjoy looking up and seeing the Milky Way.

You can find more info by Googling "Lake Hudson Dark Sky Preserve"