This series of pages is devoted to the issue of the miltary's need for a dark sky in order to conduct night time training using state of the art night vision devices. Our lead off story is exactly how the military's request for darker skies was handled. They did not include them from the onset in the drafting of the ordinance. Instead, Development Services, City Lawyers, City Managers Office and some City Council members consulted with lobbyist, developers, contractors and Clear Channel Outdoor - the owners of 12 of the 13 digitals within the City of San Antonio. The military was never involved until contacted by a Scenic San Antonio member to get their opinion on the upcoming discussion and vote by the Zoning Commission. The miltary leaders had no idea it was up for a vote much less see a rough draft which at that time was on REVISION 27. That was 26 opportunites to call the military by ANY CITY OFFICAL and get them involved in the process. Now we ask you, who do you think the "Proposed Ordinance" favors - the miltary who need it OR all the lobbyist, developers and billboard companies working with our City Leaders and City Staffs that were involved from DAY ONE? You decide.

Further articles are what is happening around the country and the world concerning light pollution and peoples' desires for a less light polluted sky. These stories show the ill effects on our lives including health and the effects on nature and its animals that depend on us humans for their protection too. They show what other cities have done and what we could do here in San Antonio if we had the political will to back our words of making San Antonio more "Green" - environmentally friendly.

Input from Army, residents excluded from Bullis plan

By Tracy Idell Hamilton - Express-News

A proposed dark skies ordinance was stopped in its tracks Tuesday when the city’s Zoning Commission learned the Army had been left out of the process.

Commissioners were aghast to learn that Army spokesman Phil Reidinger had been alerted to the ordinance not by the city but by a local resident, who sent him a draft copy Oct. 30. He said no one at Fort Sam Houston, which oversees Camp Bullis, knew the ordinance had been drafted until then — even though city officials have vowed repeatedly to keep the Army in the loop.

One of the things that has been said recently concerning the digital that is real close to Camp Bullis is that they do not see the need to ban digitals from around Camp Bullis and other military bases. We offer this article taken from the Shreveport Times where they are worried about the effect of a digital billboard being misunderstood for something else. This concerns a military base WITH TRAINED PILOTS - do we not train NEW PILOTS for the Air Force at Randolph AFB and have big Air Force C-5 cargo planes landing at Lackland AFB which are flown by pilots that may not call San Antonio home and thus land here everyday? Apply this article to Stinson Field or San Antonio International Airport. Then consider the whole purpose of this ordinance is to achieve Dark Sky around Camp Bullis but the Ordinance allows digitals to be continually upgraded to a higher brillance as the amount of light in the area goes up due to development insuring that the digital is the brightest sign in the area. How do other businesses like it that they are not on an equal footing? Are you not advertsing YOUR BUSINESS at a location that you probably pay more in taxes than they do.

After you read this article go to story about how a billboard that had a taxable value of less than $30,000 became worth $525,000 in our "News Happening in San Antonio".

Digital billboards have pros, cons

As the votes were tallied for the presidential election Nov. 4, Americans followed the race in more ways than ever before: TVs, PDAs, computers — and billboards.

The digital billboard boom has hit the Shreveport-Bossier City area, giving advertisers new ways to reach their audience. But just as technology has changed, so too must the response from zoning administrators, who regulate...

Talking to Fireflies Before Their Flash Disappears

BAN LOMTUAN, Thailand — Thousands of fireflies fill the branches of trees along the Mae Klong River here, flashing on and off in unison — relentless and silent, two times a second, deep into the night.Nobody knows why.

“It’s one of the most amazing things you’ll ever see,” said Sara M. Lewis, a professor of biology at Tufts University. Evolutionary biologists have studied synchronous flashing for 200 years, she said, and it remains a mystery.

But it is a spectacle that may be disappearing.

Protecting the dark sky above the Lower Wisconsin

rseely@madison.com

SPRING GREEN — On a crystalline fall night, when the stars seem almost within reach, the view from the dark bank of the Lower Wisconsin River is of shadowy bluff and of still water and reflected constellations.

On many such nights, the glowing stars in our galaxy trace a luminous path

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