Bring Back the Stars: Please Support Palo Alto’s Dark Sky Ordinance!

Bring Back the Stars: Please Support Palo Alto’s Dark Sky Ordinance!

What is happening

On Monday, November 10, the Palo Alto City Council will consider adopting a Dark Sky (Outdoor Lighting) Ordinance.

This ordinance would set important limits on outdoor lighting to protect migrating birds, nocturnal wildlife, and human health, while saving energy and restoring our view of the stars.
It follows best practices from the International Dark-Sky Association and the Illuminating Engineering Society, ensuring that outdoor lighting is shielded, controlled, and used only where and when it’s needed without compromising safety or commerce.

Why is it important

Light Pollution Harms Birds, Insects, and Ecosystems

Artificial light at night affects every level of food webs and ecosystems.

• Birds: Many species migrate at night, guided by the moon and stars. Bright, unshielded lighting disorients them, drawing birds into urban areas where collisions with glass and illuminated structures are often fatal.

• Insects: Insects are irresistibly drawn to lights, where they circle until they die from exhaustion or are taken by predators. Because insects are vital prey for birds, bats, and other wildlife, insect declines ripple up the food web.

By controlling outdoor lighting Palo Alto can reduce bird collisions and insect mortality, restoring healthier ecosystems along the Pacific Flyway.

Light Pollution Harms People, Too

Artificial light at night disrupts sleep, mood, and hormone balance, and has been linked to insomnia, depression, metabolic disease, and cancer risks. Glare from over-lighting can even make streets less safe by reducing contrast and night vision.

For thousands of years, people have looked up at the stars for meaning and inspiration. Today, most children never see the Milky Way, even as they sing “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

Restoring natural darkness restores our health and our sense of wonder.

What You Can Do

Email the City Council TODAY

Urge Mayor Lauing and the Council to adopt a strong, science-based Dark Sky Ordinance.

To: City.Council@PaloAlto.gov
Subject: 11/10/25 Agenda Item 8: Please adopt a strong outdoor lighting ordinance

Body (suggested points):

• Say a few words about who you are and why you care.

• Share any experience with nuisance light affecting your home or neighborhood.

• Ask the Council to adopt a strong ordinance to protect birds, people, and our night sky.

Speak at the Council Meeting or Cede Your Time to our Advocates

Give a brief public comment or cede your time to SCVBA advocates at the City Council meeting on November 10 (likely after 10 PM).

Zoom: https://cityofpaloalto.zoom.us/j/362027238

If you can cede time, please email Shani at advocate@scvbirdalliance.org.

All living beings deserve nights free from unnecessary light. Together, we can protect birds, insects, and people—and let the night sky shine again over Palo Alto.

Thank you,

Stop the Rollback on Rodenticide Protections

Barn Owls (by Teresa Cheng) are often the unintended victims of rodenticides.

What is Happening?

On September 24, 2025, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) held a hearing on new rules for anticoagulant rodenticides, the powerful rat poisons we fought to limit through recent state laws.

However, instead of strengthening protections, DPR is proposing a major rollback. Their plan would allow these poisons to be used for more than 100 days each year, reopening the door to widespread contamination. This goes against California’s commitment to protect wildlife, pets, and even children from these harmful chemicals.

Why Does This Matters?

Anticoagulant rodenticides are indiscriminate, bioaccumulative poisons. They don’t only kill rats, they poison owls, hawks, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and domestic pets, causing internal bleeding and long-term illness or death. In California, these poisons have been documented in coyotes, foxes, owls and hawks and many other raptors and carnivores that naturally control rodent populations.

California has already passed three critical wildlife protection laws between 2020–2023: 

• AB 1788 – First statewide restrictions on second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides,

• AB 2552 (Poison-Free Wildlife Act) – Strengthened protections and mandated safer practices, and

• AB 1322 – Closed loopholes and updated labeling & enforcement.

DPR’s proposal undermines these laws by reopening pathways for routine, widespread poison use, without emergency justification.

What You Can Do? Send a Comment by November 8

Here is the form for the comment: https://cdpr.commentinput.com/?id=JsSRaG6NA

Tell DPR that

• No anticoagulant rodenticides should be allowed, except during a declared public health or environmental emergency (current law),
  

• No rollback of AB 1788, AB 2552, or AB 1322 is acceptable, and
  

• California must invest in ecological rodent control to protect raptors and predators, not more poison.

Talking Points to Include

• Anticoagulants are toxic and non-selective, killing the very wildlife that naturally controls rodents.
  

• DPR is legally obligated to protect wildlife, not poison it.
  

• Allowing >100 days of poison use ensures continued contamination of predators, pets, and ecosystems.
  

• Californians have already demanded poison-free solutions, so DPR must honor the law.
  

Thank you for raising your voice for owls, hawks, foxes, and all wildlife. Public pressure stopped these poisons before, and can do it again.

Take action on every level!

American Avocet and chick: Chris Overington

Dear SCVBA community,

The following Action Alerts are REALLY important, and altogether take just a few minutes for each action. Birds, wildlife and habitats depend on OUR VOICES and when we speak together, we are effective (see some of our recent successes below).

1. LOCAL: Coyote Valley Regional Connections Survey: Do you love birding in Coyote Valley? Please respond to the survey and let  the Open Space Authority know! (5 minutes)

2. STATE: Call your California  senator and your assemblyman - see our UPDATED Alert on SB 131 for more information. Interested in seeing how an unedited SB 131 could impact your area? Find your district’s impact implications here. It is easier than you think, takes only a few minutes, and is REALLY CRITICAL!

3. COUNTRY: The federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule has protected roadless forests since 2001, keeping them free from logging, road-building, and other industrial development. Now the Trump administration wants to strip protections from 45 million of those acres. Road-building and logging in roadless forests will fragment habitats; disrupt wildlife migration routes; introduce invasive species; and bring noise, dust, pollution, and human pressure deep into the quiet backcountry, threatening already vulnerable and endangered plants and animals.

We rarely ask you to comment on federal action , but now we are: Please COMMENT (https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FS-2025-0001/document) before  September 19, 2025. Please make a unique contribution - meaning it is not a copy of a form letter. You may incorporate any of the following into your own comment:

• Roadless areas protect intact habitat for over 1,600 wildlife species, including threatened and endangered species.

• Roadless areas maintain connectivity for wide-ranging species such as grizzly bears, wolves, and migratory birds.

• Roadless areas function as breeding areas that replenish wildlife populations, supporting hunting, fishing, and recreation over the long term.

• Roadless forests protect drinking water for 60 million Americans by safeguarding headwaters from sediment and pollution caused by roads.

• Roadless areas reduce flood risks by preserving natural floodplains and watersheds.

Updates /  Good News:

Mountain View -  Bird Friendly Design

Mountain View has adopted mandatory Citywide Bird Friendly Design Standards. The city council voted unanimously to accept our recommendations, which substantially strengthened the ordinance.  

Mountain View - Cuesta Park and Annex

A Well-attended Community Meeting in Mountain View showed overwhelming opposition to paving parts of Cuesta Park and Cuesta Park Annex and other parkland to construct Pickleball Courts. While development of Pickleball at Cuesta is not off the table, the City is now looking into a Public-Private partnership, potentially a parking lot  in an industrial area, away from residents and nature.

See MV Voice Story

Valley Water - Pacheco Dam  

After years of advocacy and raising awareness about the ecological and financial risks of the proposed Pacheco Dam expansion, the Valley Water Board of Directors voted on August 26, 2025, to indefinitely suspend the project.

Together with many partner organizations, SCVBA has consistently called for an end to the Pacheco Dam Expansion Project. We wrote letters, issued action alerts, and reported in our newsletters. We submitted comments on Environmental Impact Reports, and testified before both the Valley Water Board of Directors and the California Water Commission (see quote here).

The proposed project threatened to destroy critical wildlife habitat, drown miles of stream corridor and rare sycamore forest, flood part of Henry Coe State Park, and saddle the public with billions in costs.

A decisive moment came in July 2025, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation denied Valley Water’s request to import Central Valley Project water into the reservoir. This rejection effectively undermined the project’s viability, eliminating key opportunities for partnership and federal funding.

This outcome is a major victory for endangered species, open space, and fiscal responsibility. It demonstrates the power of collective action to protect our environment.

Special thanks to our EAC member and Sierra Club Loma Prieta advocate Katja Irvin for her leadership and guidance. See San Jose Spotlight and Mercury News stories.

Santa Clara County - Harry Road

In June, the County Planning Commission halted processing of the Gavello Glen Builder’s Remedy project on Harry Road because the application was incomplete and missing required planning documents. The applicant appealed this determination. We sent a joint letter to the commission, which ultimately decided to deny the appeal.  

Housing is undoubtedly needed in our region, but like other Builder’s Remedy proposals, the Harry Road project would have been pure sprawl into rural, agricultural land between Alamitos and Calero Creeks. The Bay Area Greenprint identifies the site as “very valuable habitat” for threatened and endangered species, while the Conservation Lands Network map highlights the portion nearest Alamitos Creek as “essential to conservation goals.” A 2019 UC Santa Cruz study also documented bobcats using the site as a corridor between the two creeks. Fire hazards and seismic risks added to the long list of concerns about building in this location.

Although these environmental and safety concerns are serious, the Commission’s decision was based solely on the application’s failure to meet required deadlines.

We thank Planning Commissioners Levy, Escobar, Chang-Hetterly and Cohen for their diligence and vote.

Thank you for supporting our conservation work, and protecting birds and their ecosystems!

Thank you,

Shani

August Update - SB 131 fixes

Action Alert: Don't Repeat Fairchild toxic history by the Bay: Fix SB 131 to Protect Communities, Wildlife, and California’s Future

California’s environmental protections are under attack. In June, the legislature rushed through SB 131, a sweeping rollback of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) — our state’s foundational law for public input, transparency, and environmental review.

Why this matters

Silicon Valley knows all too well the dangers of unchecked “advanced manufacturing.” Fairchild Semiconductor’s toxic plume poisoned San José groundwater for decades, leaving behind one of 23 Superfund sites in Santa Clara County — the most in the nation. At Lehigh Cement in Cupertino, mercury and selenium polluted air and water for years before action was taken. These disasters happened because oversight came too late.

Now, SB 131 threatens to repeat these mistakes by:

• Exempting “advanced manufacturing” projects (including semiconductor plants, lithium recovery, plastics incineration, fertilizer plants, aerospace production, and more) from CEQA review.
  
  

• Excluding critical habitats for endangered and rare species from protection, undermining California’s 30x30 conservation goals.
  
  

• Silencing communities by stripping away the public’s right to know about and weigh in on toxic projects near homes, schools, and natural lands.
  
  

Without CEQA review, endangered species like California condors, mountain yellow-legged frogs, and gray wolves lose vital habitat protections — and frontline communities lose safeguards against toxic pollution.

The good news: its not too late (if we act)

Legislative leaders promised a cleanup bill this session to fix SB 131’s worst flaws — but they will only act if they hear from us now.

In Santa Clara County, Senators Becker and Cortese, and Assemblymembers Ahrens, Lee, and Berman voted for SB 131 - they especially need to hear from constituents.

PLEASE Make three quick calls today.

1. Call your State Senator

• Senator Dave Cortese (District 15)
   Capitol Office Phone: (916) 651- 4015 Senator Dave Cortesesenate.ca.gov
  
  

• Senator Josh Becker (District 13)
   Capitol Office Phone: (916) 651- 4013

Ask them to sign onto Senator Blakespear’s cleanup letter (via Brynn.Cook@sen.ca.gov).

2.  Call your Assemblymember

California State Assembly

• Assemblymember Marc Berman (District 23)
   Capitol Office Phone: (916) 319-2023 

• Assemblymember Alex Lee (District 24)
   Capitol Office Phone: (916) 319-2024 

• Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens (District 26)
   Capitol Office Phone: (916) 319-2026 

Ask them to join the SB 131 cleanup letter, now open to Assembly Members.

3.  Call Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire at (916) 651-4002

• Thank him for promising to fix SB 131, and urge him to honor his word before the session ends September 12.

• Suggested words:
   “Please follow through on your commitment to fix SB 131 by restoring CEQA protections for endangered species habitat and removing the advanced manufacturing exemption. California’s communities and wildlife depend on it.”

Find your legislators here: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov

Phone calls are most effective. Follow up with an email if you can.