{"id":10278,"date":"2023-05-31T14:56:37","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/?p=10278"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:01:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T21:01:48","slug":"agate-fossil-beds-offers-night-sky-viewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/agate-fossil-beds-offers-night-sky-viewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Agate Fossil Beds offers night sky viewing"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Agate Fossil Beds offers night sky viewing<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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By Kerri Rempp<\/strong><\/p>

Discover Northwest Nebraska<\/strong><\/p>

There are a lot of things Northwest Nebraska doesn\u2019t have when compared to other destinations: beaches, miles of retail shopping, professional sports teams\u2026traffic, crowded trails, air and light pollution.<\/p>

The lack of light pollution translates to an attraction many residents take for granted, the night sky.<\/p>

The \u201cWorld Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness,\u201d commissioned in 2016, indicates that 80% of the world\u2019s population lives under skyglow. Millions of children around the world will never see the Milky Way in their lifetime.<\/p>

According to the International Dark Sky Association, there is growing evidence that, in addition to never enjoying the sight of dark skies, light pollution is connected to increasing energy consumption, disrupts the ecosystem and wildlife, harms human health and negatively affects crime and safety rates.<\/p>

At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument south of Harrison, Tera Lynn Gray, the new lead interpretive ranger, and her husband, Jason, the regional manager for the Black Hills Parks & Forest Association, are working to inspire awe, awareness and enjoyment of the night skies in residents and visitors.<\/p>

The park has already hosted two night sky events this season, one focused on the stories of the constellations and another introducing kids to the wonders of astronomy (with ice cream!). Four more are planned from now until September.<\/p>

The next night sky program will be a new adventure for the park. On June 24, 50 pre-registered guests will be allowed to campout at the Agate Fossil Beds; the park does not allow camping at any other time, but Gray wanted to offer the opportunity to spend an entire night under the stars with interpretive elements.<\/p>

On July 1, the park will offer a full moon hike from 7-9 p.m., and on Aug. 12, visitors can view the Perseids through telescopes. The final program will take place Sept. 9, when Jason will lead an astrophotography 101 program.<\/p>

Calling himself \u201ca geek from birth,\u201d Jason says the night skies have always been fascinating to him. The ability to combine it with the cultural aspect of constellation stories ranging from the Greco-Roman era to Native American beliefs and the science behind the importance of the night skies to flora and fauna fulfills every desire.<\/p>

\u201cIt hits every button,\u201d he said.<\/p>

The couple have spent the last several years traveling to a new detail every six months at national parks across the country. Tera Lynn, a former teacher and principal at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, has taken positions at a variety of parks, and Jason then volunteers at each one, often in the night sky programming.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s done amazing stuff at the parks we\u2019ve been,\u201d Tera Lynn said. \u201cWe love the message of the park service,\u201d she added, noting that their children, Travis, 15, and Ainsley, 12, have 70 junior ranger badges. In their travels, they always made plans to catch the night sky programs at the parks, and it\u2019s not unknown for them to wake up the kids at 2 a.m. for night sky viewing.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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There is a connection between the sky and Earth, and night skies need to be protected, Jason said. As an example, light pollution can wipe out a population of fireflies in two summers, he said. Agricultural growing seasons and wildlife all depend on night skies, he continued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

While the night sky programs\u2019 main goal is to raise awareness and share the dark skies experience with visitors, Agate Fossil Beds is also hoping the programming will assist them in an application to become a certified Dark Sky Park through the International Dark Skies Association.<\/p>

While the parks\u2019 trails will still be required to close at sunset if certification is achieved, Agate Fossil Beds will focus more programming on accessibility to night sky viewing. Some of the legwork required for certification was completed by previous staff, including a lighting survey and transitioning to compliant lighting within the park boundaries. The Grays will work together to finish the park\u2019s other requirements for application this year.<\/p>

Acquiring the certification will help visitors interested in dark skies find their way to Agate Fossil Beds, which translates to increased tourism dollars for local businesses.<\/p>

Tera Lynn joined the park service after Jason set up an interview for her, noting that the commute to her job in education was stressful. Their sustainable farm in Colorado was also a challenge given the state\u2019s water regulations. They decided the career change would be worth it because it would allow them to work together at each park.<\/p>

Tera Lynn\u2019s first posting was Agate Fossil Beds before they moved on to other locations. When it was time to pick one location and settle down again, the choice was easy for the entire family: Agate Fossil Beds.<\/p>

\u201cIt was unanimous,\u201d Tera Lynn said.<\/p>

Of course, in full transparency, Jason said, the kids were lured to Harrison for the full-sized candy bars many homes give out at Halloween.<\/p>

Tera Lynn took over the posting as lead interpretive ranger last September, while Jason, who has a background in finance, took the position as the regional manager for the Black Hills Parks & Forest Association, offering resources in the park stores that further interpret the stories of the parks themselves.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve slowly evolved from hard-core urban southern California types to living in Harrison,\u201d Jason said. \u201cThere was something about Agate, the region and the environment.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>

Now, working from both sides \u2013 the National Park Service and the park store \u2013 they want to put Agate Fossil Beds on the map with additional programming and exhibits, making both avenues accessible to those with disabilities given Tera Lynn\u2019s educational background. Jason and the Black Hills Parks & Forest Association are also working to enhance the park\u2019s interactive trailer to make Agate\u2019s story mobile in an effort to reach new audiences.<\/p>

\u201cWe love the park service, and we love this town,\u201d Tera Lynn said, adding that she wants to connect with more community members. A volunteer experience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day brought in community members to work on the park\u2019s archives, and it inspired at least two volunteers to become regular faces at the park.<\/p>

\u201cThis is their park,\u201d Tera Lynn said of the Sioux County residents. \u201cHarrison is our gateway community.\u201d<\/p>

Jason has researched James Cook and his family extensively since coming to Agate Fossil Beds and what they envisioned for the park.<\/p>

\u201cIt was going to be a flagship site, and there was a lot of excitement in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cOne hundred years later, we\u2019re trying to live up to some of that.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agate Fossil Beds offers night sky viewing By Kerri Rempp Discover Northwest Nebraska There are a lot of things Northwest Nebraska doesn\u2019t have when compared to other destinations: beaches, miles of retail shopping, professional sports teams\u2026traffic, crowded trails, air and light pollution. The lack of light pollution translates to an attraction many residents take for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,484,314],"class_list":["post-10278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agate-fossil-beds","tag-dark-sky","tag-night-skies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BDD_3230.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgf0HI-2FM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10284,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10278\/revisions\/10284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}