‘Lights Out’ in Seattle. It’s For the Birds. It’s for all of Us.

‘Lights Out’ is Audubon’s national program encouraging cities to shut off non essential lights in buildings during the bird migration each Spring & Fall. New York government buildings just joined in the effort. We decided just sending a thank-you note to Governor Cuomo was not enough. So we wrote Mayor Ed Murray a letter to see if we can get Seattle participating. If you want to see Seattle turn out non essential lights for the birds please consider dropping your mayor a note. Or consider challenging Governor Inslee to implement this program statewide.

An Open Letter to Seattle’s Mayor

Mayor Edward B. Murray
City of Seattle
PO Box 94749
Seattle, WA  98124-4749

Seattle Nature Alliance
Seattle WA 98126
rebecca@seattlenaturealliance.org

May 18, 2015

Regarding: Audubon’s National ‘Lights Out’ Program

Dear Mayor Murray,

May 9th marked International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD), whose mission is to celebrate the wondrous event that occurs every year, and serves as a way to educate and bring in to focus international bird conservation efforts. The Audubon ‘Lights Out’ program, compliments the IMBD with a national effort encouraging businesses and organizations in cities across the United States, to turn off unessential lights in tall buildings during periods of bird migration and by doing so, help decrease bird deaths which occur when birds, looking to the stars to navigate, are disoriented by the bright lights of the city.

As citizens of Seattle, we have come to expect our city to be a leader on things impacting the natural world and hope our leaders are paying close attention to ways of supporting and sustaining our precious resources so that nature will continue to flourish for future generations. Although we had heard about ‘Lights Out’ program, we were all shocked to find that Seattle is not on the list of participating cities (which includes Boston, Washington DC, Denver, San Francisco and Portland to name a few). You may have recently read that the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced New York State owned and managed buildings would be participating in the ‘Lights Out’ program. It seems to us if the Empire State can participate, the Emerald City certainly can too.

We would encourage you to get Seattle on the ‘Lights Out’ program so that Seattle too can help save energy and help birds navigate on their annual journey, and so that our city continues to be a leader in helping preserve the natural world. We would also encourage you to challenge the County Executive Dow Constantine and Governor Jay Inslee to join this effort.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Mark Ahlness
Denise Dahn
Rebecca Watson

Seattle Nature Alliance
http://www.seattlenaturealliance.org | info@seattlenaturealliance.org

It is our mission at the Seattle Nature Alliance to preserve urban natural areas for wildlife habitat, passive use, and scenic beauty.