Let’s Give Sunnyvale Back Its Night Sky

Barn Owl: Tom Grey

Let’s Give Sunnyvale Back Its Night Sky (and the Birds Will Thank You!)

Ever notice how hard it is to see the stars anymore?
Or how birds, bats, and other nighttime wildlife seem a little… confused?

Too much artificial light at night isn’t just unnecessary — it disrupts wildlife, affects human health, and washes out the beauty of the night sky. The good news? We can fix this, easily and affordably.

Cities like Cupertino, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Brisbane already have Dark Sky ordinances, and Mountain View is working on one now. These policies improve lighting quality, save energy, protect wildlife, and still keep our neighborhoods safe.

Now it’s Sunnyvale’s turn.

By signing this petition, you’re simply asking the Sunnyvale City Council to start a conversation about a Dark Sky Ordinance, using best practices developed by Dark Sky International. No rigid demands — just a thoughtful, community-based discussion about better lighting.

Please take a moment to sign the petition:
sunnyvaledarksky.org

Let’s make Sunnyvale’s nights healthier, calmer, and more beautiful — for people, birds, and all the creatures who depend on the dark.

Thank you for lending your voice!

Rani Fischer
Chair, Environmental Action Committee
Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance

Juristac Protected: A Long-Awaited Conservation Win

Golden Eagle: Chuq von Rospach

Juristac Protected: A Long-Awaited Conservation Win

After decades of uncertainty and repeated development threats, Juristac (aka Sargent Ranch) is finally protected. The Peninsula Open Space Trust has announced the purchase of an additional 2,284 acres, bringing the total protected land at Juristac to more than 6,100 acres of rolling hills, grasslands and oak woodlands, creeks, riparian forests and sycamore woodlands. The threats of development, mining, and other extractive activities are over!

For the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, this moment reflects many years of advocacy alongside many conservation groups and in strong support of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, for whom Juristac is a sacred cultural landscape.

Why Juristac Matters

Juristac protects one of the last large, contiguous grassland landscapes in Santa Clara County. These habitats support raptors like Golden Eagles, Burrowing Owls, kestrels and hawks. Golden Eagles rely on expansive, connected open lands for hunting and dispersal, while burrowing owls need open grasslands to nest and forage successfully. Red-tailed Hwks, Northern Harriers, and other raptors use Juristac’s rolling hills, oak woodlands, and creek corridors for hunting and migration. Juristac also protects one of the last Sycamore alluvial woodlands in our region, an important stopover habitat for many species of migratory birds.

Furthermore, Juristac provides an important connectivity element of the California landscape, linking habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Diablo Range, and Gabilan Range. This linkage allows wildlife to move across the landscape, adapt to climate change, and maintain healthy populations. Grassland birds, raptors, amphibians, and large mammals all depend on this connected terrain.

Tar Creek at Sargent Ranch: Shani Kleinhaus

The land also holds deep cultural significance. For thousands of years, Juristac has been a place of ceremony, healing, and gathering for the Amah Mutsun people. The land was originally part of the early 19th-century Mexican land grant Rancho Juristac, tying today’s conservation to centuries of layered history in this region.

Juristac is also geologically unique. The property includes natural tar springs, where petroleum seeps to the surface and slowly feeds Tar Creek - an uncommon and striking geological feature in this region. These features are part of Juristac’s natural history and add yet another reason this landscape is irreplaceable.

By keeping this landscape whole and free from development, the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance helped secure real, functioning habitat, ensuring that raptors can soar, hunt, and move across this critical landscape for generations to come.

A Complicated History

Over the decades, Sargent Ranch has drawn repeated development schemes, including oil extraction, golf courses, casinos, luxury housing, quarries, and mining. Many of these efforts ended in litigation or bankruptcy, underscoring the land’s vulnerability and its enduring value.

Throughout this long history, SCVBA has remained engaged, raising concerns about bird habitat, water quality and wildlife movement, and consistently supporting protection of the land rather than industrial use.

Looking Ahead

With this latest acquisition, Juristac is finally shifting from uncertainty to stewardship. For birds, wildlife, and people, this protection means intact habitat, dark skies, flowing creeks, and a future shaped by respect for both nature and culture.

Juristac — By the Numbers

• 2,284 acres - newly protected in this acquisition

• 6,100+ acres -  now conserved overall

• 3 major mountain ranges connected - Santa Cruz, Diablo, Gabilan

• Thousands of years - of Amah Mutsun cultural history

• Multiple decades - of community and conservation advocacy

• Rare tar springs - unique geological features preserved
  
  
  

Palo Alto Dark Skies - rescheduled for December

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

What is happening

On Monday, December 8th, the Palo Alto City Council will consider adopting a Dark Sky (Outdoor Lighting) Ordinance. This ordinance would reduce light pollution to protect migrating birds, nocturnal wildlife, and human health, while saving energy and restoring our view of the stars. It follows best practices to ensure that light is used when it is needed, where it is needed, and no more than is needed—without compromising safety or commerce.

Why is it important

Artificial light at night disrupts ecosystems at every level, throwing off hormones, sleep cycles, and the timing of natural behaviors. It interferes with bird migration and increases deadly collisions, draws insects to lights where they die in large numbers, and affects human health by disturbing sleep, mood, and hormone regulation, with links to cardiovascular disease and cancer. Excessive glare can even reduce nighttime safety by impairing contrast and vision.

For countless generations, people have looked up at the stars. Today, most children can’t see the Milky Way. It’s time to restore our sense of wonder.

What You Can Do

Email the City Council TODAY

To: City.Council@PaloAlto.gov
Subject: 12/8/25 Agenda Item 15: We need a strong outdoor lighting ordinance

Talking Points (as are relevant to you!):

• 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 (in person or zoom). A brief 1–2 minute comment can be very effective! We expect this item (#15) to be discussed after 8:30 PM.

Cede your time to our advocates by being present at the meeting (in person or zoom). Please email 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.

December Action Alerts - Sunnyvale, Mountain View, San Jose, & Palo Alto

Least Sandpiper: John Tsortos

SURVEY: Mountain View Dark Sky (respond by Dec. 10)

The City of Mountain View is developing a Dark Sky Ordinance. This effort follows years of community engagement and advocacy by SCVBA and other environmental groups, including the GreenSpacesMV and the Sierra Club. A well designed ordinance should adhere to the International Dark Sky  Five Principles of Responsible Outdoor Lighting and:

• Protect wildlife and habitat throughout the city.

• Improve human health and wellbeing

• Reduce light pollution and restore the visibility of the night sky and the stars

The City has issued an Online Survey - English, Spanish, Chinese). Please respond to the survey (it only takes 5 minutes, and you do not have to respond to every question)? Consider highlighting the importance to nature and to our health and well being. Also, at the very least, it is critically important to apply this ordinance to new construction, remodels, and voluntary replacement of lighting fixtures.

SURVEY: Access to levees in Sunnyvale

It is not too late to respond to the Sunnyvale Survey of Recreational (birding!) use of the Sunnyvale Baylands. The City of Sunnyvale is seeking public input to better understand how the Water Pollution Control Plant Treatment Ponds Interior Levee trails (see map) are used and what impacts a potential closure may have on the community. It takes 3 minutes to complete the survey.

• Please consider expressing support for closing some interior levees to reduce disturbance to wildlife, but the plan needs refinement, including:

• Keeping the east levee between Oxidation Ponds 1 & 2 open, because it is the only reasonable connector and has a parallel levee that provides the same wildlife benefits

• Maintain access to the Moffett Channel for bird monitoring and eBird data collection, which is essential for tracking wildlife health.

• Seasonal or foot-only access, better signage, and docent programs can protect wildlife without eliminating key observation routes.

Palo Alto update to the lighting ordinance to December 8th

The City Council has delayed the discussion of the update to the lighting ordinance to December 8th. 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. The ordinance follows best practices from the International Dark-Sky Association ensuring that outdoor lighting is used only where and when it’s needed without compromising safety or commerce. See our letter of recommendation to the council, and please watch for our Action Alert in the beginning of December. 

San Jose is designing a Stormwater Capture Project near Kelly park. 

A community meeting will be held Wednesday December 3 at 6pm, at the RF Kennedy Elementary School (1602 Lucretia Ave, San Jose). Please consider attending to advocate for native plants and pollinator gardens.