The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) has named the UBarU Camp and Retreat Center in Texas an International Dark Sky Park.
“The designation of UBarU is another great stride forward in the protection of dark skies in the Texas Hill County,” said IDA Executive Director J. Scott Feierabend. “The new Dark Sky Park also demonstrates a new model for night sky protection by working with a private foundation to achieve a common goal.”
UBarU is a 57.5-hectare (142-acre) property in southwest Gillespie County, Texas, owned and operated by the Unitarian Universalist Friends Retreat Foundation. The Foundation is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations of Texas and beyond, and received the land in 2001 from a resident Quaker community with the request that the Foundation care for the land as they had done for the benefit of the community and the Earth. Most of the land is subject to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife management plan… Read more from the International Dark Sky Association