Wildlife Protection
Our commitment is to foster a vibrant and resilient community that values its natural surroundings and works collaboratively to address environmental challenges.
Light Pollution
Noise Pollution
Traffic Congestion
Parking Shortages
Artificial Light & Stadium Noise Will Threaten Local Biodiversity & Wildlife
Wildlife evolved with a regular schedule of natural daylight and nighttime darkness, and artificial night lighting of their habitat can cause physical and behavioral responses harmful to their wellbeing. For example, wildlife that use the cover of darkness to forage for food can be more vulnerable to predators in a lighted environment
Marin Catholic’s stadium sits directly adjacent to Corte Madera creek and Hal Brown Park at Creekside. This area includes about 21 acres of tidal wetlands and is valuable wildlife habitat in the midst of a highly developed area. Considerable work has been done to enhance the marsh habitat and high tide refugia for resident and migratory birds and wildlife. These include Ridgeway’s Rail and Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, both federal and state listed endangered species.
Artificial light and sound pollution are one of the most widespread threats to biodiversity and wildlife around the globe. Artificial light and noise pollution have numerous and severe impacts on wildlife, especially harming nocturnal wildlife, species active during twilight, insects, and migratory birds and bats. Artificial light disrupts natural rhythms, influences predator-prey relationships, and hinders navigation, reproduction, nourishment and sleep.
Madera Creek is a prime spot along a vital flyway for a variety of water fowl. It also acts as a nesting ground for these same birds to stop and grow their numbers. Night lighting can be lethal for birds, particularly during migration. Birds are attracted to lighting causing them to go off course. They can become exhausted, fall to the ground and die or collide with windows or other objects nearby. Additionally, MCHS plans to illuminate and use the stadium throughout the lacrosse season, which occurs during the breeding season for Ridgeway’s Rail.
A lighted Marin Catholic stadium conflicts with the Clean and Healthy Bay measure passed in June of 2016. This measure was enacted to protect the “San Francisco Bay for future generations by reducing trash, pollution, and harmful toxins, improving water quality, restoring habitat for fish, birds and wildlife, protecting communities from floods, and increasing shoreline public access.” The Corte Madera Creek and its accompanying wetlands are part of the area protected by this measure.
Impact on Nocturnal Animals
Think about the owl that hunts at night or the firefly that uses its glow to communicate. Bright lights confuse these creatures. Their hunting patterns get disrupted, they become easy prey, or they simply lose their way.
Altering Plant Growth and Behaviors
Plants, guided by sunlight for photosynthesis, can be puzzled by artificial light. This can mess up their internal clocks, sometimes impacting their growth and reproduction.
Next Meeting:
Dec 10, 2024
More Significant Negative Impacts
Night Noise. Night Lights. Night Traffic.
Noise Pollution
Daytime game noise is already so loud in some homes that folks have to keep the windows closed, otherwise it sounds like the game is being played in their backyard. Imagine suffering through this virtually every night of the school year!
Light Pollution
Skyglow and glare is of significant concern for Ross Valley residents due to the topography of the area. Light pollution from the towering 99.5-foot light structures will disrupt the natural night sky and adversely affect local wildlife.
Traffic Congestion
MCHS is a commuter school where more than 80% of students are not local. Adding more traffic to the evening rush hour and later will only excacerbate existing parking shortages and cause more traffic jams.
Parking Shortages
MCHS does not have enough onsite parking for nightime events, so they plan to let spectator parking spill over into the neighborhood. Converting local streets into short-term event parking is unlawful and dangerous.
Share Your Concerns
FAQs
Please reach out to us with any additional questions or concerns at: PreserveRossValley@gmail.com
Why does MCHS need permanent night lights?
They don’t. MCHS does not need field lights. The school has successfully operated without field lights for years.
However, MCHS wants field lights because they’ve chosen to pursue an aggressive marketing & growth strategy that, notwithstanding existing space constraints, relies heavily on unbridled expansions of its sports programs in order to attract elite athletes. (MCHS is a private school owned by the Archdiocese Of SF).
There are numerous student support programs that are far more appropriate for this site that would not impose significant negative impacts on Ross Valley and the surrounding environs.
How is this proposal different from prior MCHS proposals?
In 2012, MCHS promised to propose a plan that would light the stadium for only 10 evening events a year, specifically including only “five football games and five soccer or lacrosse matches.” As president Tim Navone explained, “…If there’s some trust that it really is just five times a year the community would be impacted, they’d be behind it and support it.”
The current plan proposes to light the stadium late for at least 135 night events per year, representing a 135% increase in usage!
Will this increase noise in the surrounding neighborhoods?
YES!
MCHS sits at the base of Ross Valley, which has a particular topography that acts as natural amphitheater amplifying noise generated from stadium events up into the surrounding residential neighborhoods and hillsides. The stadium noise is very loud and is not limited to cheers and boos, but also includes noise from stomping feet on aluminum bleachers, air horns, marching bands and crackling PA system announcements. MCHS’ president has suggested that if local residents are bothered by the noise, then “a trip to Costco, a hike on the mountain, or a visit to a friend’s house is in order.” REALLY? How are young children in the neighborhood supposed to sleep? Are the neighbors simply supposed to go on night hikes and live at Costco 135 nights a year?
Will this create glare or light pollution?
YES!
Skyglow and glare is of significant concern for a wide range of residents due to the topography of the area. This concern also extends to wildlife, as circadian rhythms are often disrupted by such powerful light sources. In addition, the 80-foot tall light towers would be unsightly and would illuminate a large swath of Ross Valley. Views toward and from Mt. Tam would be degraded or eliminated many nights a year, a condition consistent with an urban setting but inappropriate for Marin County.
Does the proposal include specific limits on noise levels and clear restrictions on days, times, and manner of usage?
NO!
Will this provide any significant benefits to Ross Valley residents?
No.
Marin Catholic High School retains exclusive control and use of the fields. MCHS is a tax-exempt private “commuter” school and it is estimated that less than 15% of its students and staff live within our Community. Although MCHS will clearly benefit from the proposed system, there are no significant benefits for Ross Valley residents. This is a fundamentally unbalanced equation: a private benefit, and a public cost.
What Our Community Is Saying
“The animals that live on the Marsh and in Corte Madera creek depend on us to protect them from further development and intrusion of their habitat.”
Suzanne Fogarty
“Night lighting can be lethal for birds, particularly during migration. Birds are attracted to lighting causing them to go off course. They can become exhausted, fall to the ground and die or collide with windows or other objects nearby.”
Marin Audubon Society
“Wildlife evolved with a regular schedule of natural daylight and nighttime darkness, and artificial night lighting of their habitat can cause physical and behavioral responses harmful to their wellbeing. For example, wildlife that use the cover of darkness to forage for food can be more vulnerable to predators in a lighted environment.”
Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed
“The project could potentially result in negative impacts upon common and special-bird species’ day and night roosting, foraging, and breeding habitat. Of those species, The Ridgway’s Rail, is endangered, under federal and California law.”
Brendan Fogerty
“The installation of the 80 foot high light poles may be a benefit to MC, but the community will bear the burden and suffer the consequences. …Based on the incompatibility of the MC lights project with many of the Marin code requirements, planning policies, and community principles, I am requesting that the County government deny the MC lights proposal.”
Larry Mansbach
“I am also very, very distressed by the plans and its seemingly disregard of the impact these lights will have on the Federally and State protected wildlife in the marshland adjacent to Marin Catholic.”
Sheila Hershon
“….Marin Catholic is not a community school. The sole beneficiary of this field lighting proposal is a private, parochial, non-tax paying school, not the community. Despite meeting with overwhelming opposition from the community on each of its previous failed attempts for stadium lights, the school continues to try to force this project on its neighbors…”
Jim McClellan
“[I]f MC has chosen to be the school that offers “more athletic opportunities than any school north of the Golden Gate Bridge,” they should raise the money through whatever means (i.e. alumni; endowment) and build a facility in an appropriately zoned location that allows for their prioritization of sports.”
Janet Epstein
“Why are long–term residents being asked to bear the burden of a private school’s lighting project? It is not a project that will benefit the community in any way, and will only further Marin Catholic’s private needs and desires…. Truly, enough is enough.”
Yumi Esaka
“Are you thinking clearly? You want to increase traffic, increase pollution, and ruin the neighborhood, just so a private school [can] play football on Friday night instead of Saturday. Seriously, that is a very bad trade off for our community.”
Bob Casey
Join Us In Protecting Our Community
We invite you to stand with us in preserving the tranquility of Ross Valley. Send us an email or letter to register your objections, volunteer, or attend the upcoming community meeting to express your concerns about nightime stadium events. Together, we can make a difference.