Artifical Lights at Night Do More Harm Than You Realise: Here’s How to Light Your Garden Responsibly
Lighting is a crucial part of garden and landscape design. Lights are used to extend the hours of use in the garden, light driveways and pathways to make them safe and for general security. However, all artificial lighting has an effect on wildlife and the local ecosystem, so it is important to light gardens responsibly.
“All living things, including animals, plants and microbes, have evolved under a natural rhythm of night and day,” says garden designer Rachel Bailey MSGD. “As the world has rapidly become urban and light pollution extends into rural and offshore areas, the distinction between night and day has become blurred.”
Artificial light at night, also known as ALAN, has wide-reaching effects on the organisms around it. DarkSky International, the global organisation combatting light pollution, said in its annual report that “ALAN is one of the most pressing and imminent threats to global biodiversity.”
Adding that “studies suggest clear impacts on wildlife populations due to artificial light, even from indirect exposure.” Insects and birds are particularly susceptible to the effects of artificial lighting, but the impacts are felt across all types of animal and in plants too.