West End Dark Sky Alliance

West End Dark Sky Alliance (WEDSA), a non- profit organization, was formed to help the towns of Nucla and Naturita adopt dark-sky friendly lighting ordinances, and then to make one application for both towns to become a certified Joint International Dark Sky Association (IDA) Community. After a rigorous year and 1/2 application process, the two towns were jointly certified on May 6th, 2021 as the 35th IDA Community in the world, and the 25th in the U.S.! We are one of the darkest places on the planet! This is a great and special honor, but the privilage of certification has to be maintained. IDA board members who voted for us are all highly qualified in the sciences, lighting engineering, astronomy, etc... Their vote of faith in us to keep our dark skies dark was not given lightly. We worked hard to achieve this certification and will work hard to keep it! WEDSA's mission now is "...to preserve our dark sky resource and reduce light pollution through public education and advocacy." IDA requires outreach, and lighting retrofits each year, among other things, to show progress is being made. A light pollution measurement program, required since the application process was started, has been developed and data recorded since 2020. We are selling our Logo merchandise, writing grants and planning events and programs to involve our communities and school so we can raise awareness and financial support to preserve our starry skies heritage. We want our kids to grow up seeing the MilkyWay even from town!