Why Wildlife Needs the Dark

Satellite photographs of areas across the country show a very well-lit America- especially here in the northeast where there is a heavy human presence. Finding the real darkness, a true night sky, is becoming more and more challenging. Protecting those dark areas is one of the exciting benefits of a 500-acre land conservation effort managed by Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT), in partnership with the towns of Berlin, Boylston, Northborough, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Although the Tri-Town Landscape Protection Project protects land within three communities, the wildlife corridor it will add to includes tens of thousands of conserved acres of land stretching as far as the White Mountain National Forest in central New Hampshire. An article in Smithsonian Magazine titled Can the World Really Set Aside Half the Planet for Wildlife? notes “On a satellite-generated nighttime map of New England, now that such things exist, this corridor pops out unmistakably. These maps show city lights as bright white smears separated by a fascinating absence and emptiness, the almost uninterrupted blackness of the “dark landscapes” in between—that dark is where the wild things are.”

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts provided a $1.47M matching landscape grant to get this effort started. To close the gap, SVT launched its first ever crowdfunding campaign to help support the project. So far, over 150 people have donated to the campaign hosted by WorthWild, a crowdfunding site focused solely on environmental causes. Close to $23,000 of SVT’s $25,000 goal has already been raised. SVT hopes to raise the remaining $2,000 by July 31st. Will you help close the gap to protect this significant wildlife corridor and open space? Visit the crowdfunding page at www.worthwild.com.

Sudbury Valley Trustees, a regional land trust, is dedicated to conserving land and protecting wildlife habitat in the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury river basin which encompasses 36 towns, including Berlin, Boylston, and Northborough.