Light touch

Massacre Rim, a federal wildlife study area in northwest Nevada near Vya and Cedarville, California, has been designated a planetary “dark sky sanctuary.” Such designations are made by a private group called the International Dark-Sky Association which works to reduce light pollution. Nomination of the site was made by Friends of Nevada Wilderness, working with the Cedarville office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. There are petrogyphs and sage hen in the area.

In an earlier, similar designation in 2005, the Jarbidge Wilderness region in northeast Nevada was designated by Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science and the Wildlife Conservation Society as one of the places on Earth least disturbed by humankind.