The City of Fort Worth will be taking part in the national "Lights Out" campaign and will be dimming its skyline every night from midnight to 6 a.m. through May 31 to help save migrating birds who may otherwise get lost or crash into buildings.
The goal of Lights Out is to help protect billions of birds as they migrate throughout the United States. The migration primarily occurs at night which is when the lights from buildings shine the brightest and can post a dangerous distraction for transitory birds.
According to research done by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and Lights Out Texas, Texas is globally important for birds. Approximately one of every three birds migrating through the U.S. fly through the Lone Star State.
The movement is not only for the areas of the highly-populated cities, but any place where there are bright lights.
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"This is a great educational opportunity for our entire community to take one proactive step to protect these migrating bird populations. Turning the lights out in other populated areas of the city such as shopping centers and outdoor sports venues will also make a huge contribution," said Cody Whittenburg, environmental manager for the City of Fort Worth.
The Lights Out movement gained a lot of traction because former first lady Laura Bush and her conservation nonprofit asked Texans to cut their lights off to save the birds.
Frost Tower, the 25-story high-rise that was completed in 2018, is among the latest buildings to join the Lights Out movement.
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"Texas and Fort Worth are fortunate to be located right in the center of the flyway for migration. This brings more types of birds to visit Texas for all of us to experience," said Laura Bird, president of Anthracite Realty Partners, Frost Tower in downtown Fort Worth.
Bird has already taken action to reduce the amount of light coming from Frost Tower by covering TV screens as well.
"At Frost Tower Fort Worth, we want to educate our tenants and visitors, so we've developed slides for our TV screens on the ground-floor lobby and the sky lobby. Hopefully, the slides will inspire everyone to be an advocate as they go back to their homes and communities."
Downtown buildings participating in the effort so far:
- Bank of America Tower
- Burnett Plaza
- Cash America
- First on 7th
- Fort Worth City Hall
- Frost Tower
- Pier 1 Building
- 777Main
- The Tower
- Trinity Terrace
- Wells Fargo Tower
Besides saving birds, the Lights Out campaign also saves energy and money by cutting off lights.
This is not the first time the Dallas or Fort Worth area dimmed its lights to save migrating birds. Last year Dallas dimmed their skyline for the Lights Out cause as well. NBC 5 reached out to the city of Dallas to find out if they'll be taking part again this year but we have not yet heard back.
To find more information about the Lights Out campaign visit here.
