A once-in-a-generation aurora over Wisconsin’s public lands reveals the magic that unfolds after dark, from quiet moments along Lake Superior to skies alive with color and meaning.
In this guest blog, Jeff Pfaller reflects on why darkness is essential—for wildlife, ecosystems, and our deep human connection to the night sky—and why protecting it matters.
Chasing the Northern Lights in Wisconsin
It was the strongest aurora show in 20 years. The northern lights surged and pulsed just before sunrise in a relentless display of colors. Miracle after miracle exploded from horizon to horizon.
I chased red, green, purple, and yellow pillars of light along Lake Superior from Gordon County Dam to Port Wing to the Apostle Islands. I’d only seen them once before in the Alaska wild, but that couldn’t have prepared me for this.
The vibrant colors shone through 100% cloud cover and rain. Pillars emerged with sunlight still leaking from the horizon. Most of the phenomena occurred to the south, this show was so strong that night sky enthusiasts as far south as Key West saw them.
Yet my favorite moment wasn’t something spectacular. It was a quiet moment by myself just before sunrise on Meyers Beach.
Northern Lights from Port Wing. Photo by Jeff Pfaller
Nature in Wisconsin after dark
When the sun sinks below Wisconsin woodlands, the landscape changes. Shadows grow, the world takes a breath, and the sky unfolds with endless secrets.
However, a lot of visitors head home after sunset and miss this incredible opportunity. For the adventurous photographer or visitor, popular places like the Kettle Moraine State Forest or Peninsula State Park become your own private viewpoints.
Your reward for getting up early or staying out past your bedtime is a night sky twinkling above the calm waters of the Great Lakes. Feeling the hairs on your arm stand up at the sound of a pack of coyotes howling at the blood red moon rising over the driftless region. Or gazing up at the miracle of the Northern Lights.
I’m alone on Meyers Beach, bleary-eyed and delirious after an all-nighter chasing aurora. For two years, I failed at seeing them. Was taught lesson after hard lesson on how fragile their appearance at mid-latitudes are. Clouds, solar activity, timing, light pollution, even the moon can dim their beauty.
But here in the Apostle Islands, on this night, the northern lights are strong enough to show as the sun is rising. After dark in Wisconsin, it feels like the universe is creating a miracle, just for me.
Aurora from Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Photo by Jeff Pfaller
Why do dark skies matter to Wisconsin public lands?
Most people head indoors after sunset, so many wonder if it’s important to invest in things like shielded lighting and preservation of structure-free landscapes. But it’s an invaluable part of the Wisconsin ecosystem.
It’s almost impossible to find a natural rhythm more universal than the day and night. It’s not just nocturnal animals like foxes and opossums that rely on darkness to hunt and forage. Daytime animals’ circadian rhythms need the darkness to recover and evade predators. Many birds and insects also rely on the stars in the sky to navigate their migration routes.
Nocturnal katydids, moths, and fireflies propagate throughout the state and can be disrupted by light pollution. It attracts them away from their natural habitats and disrupts their behavior. Anyone who’s seen a frantic swarm of insects around a porch light can confirm this phenomena.
For many species, darkness is quite literally a matter of life and death.
And it’s not just the animals, but the plants too. The vegetation grows, flowers, and supports the pollination cycle based on the movement, and absence, of the sun.
So much of the life that happens after dark is unknown to us. Similar to the deep ocean, observing night time creatures and plants is more challenging than their daytime counterparts. In many cases, we’re not quite sure what we don’t know about life after dark. It’s more likely than not that we don’t fully grasp the benefits of our symbiotic relationship with many of these organisms.
For flora and fauna that reside in Wisconsin, darkness isn’t the absence of light. It’s the rhythm of the wild.
Lunar eclipse in Governor Dodge State Park. Photo by Jeff Pfaller
Humans would be lost without the dark
Nighttime is critical to humans too. It’s hard wired into who we are and played a key role in our success as a species.
We spread across the Earth using the stars in the night sky as our guide. Countless ships carrying entrepreneurial humans forged new paths and thrived using these points of light as navigation. Quite literally, we would be lost without the stars.
It’s also woven into our hearts and souls. There is not a single culture on the face of this planet that doesn’t have a tale about the stars. The moon has been elevated to god-like status in the stories we’ve told ourselves over and over throughout millennia. Dark skies are how we formed bonds when we came back to the safety of the village after a day of hunting and foraging. It was the inspiration for our myth making. It is as much a part of our DNA as anything else.
If we lose our connection to these stories, who will we be? If we lose that which thrives in the dark, how much will the vibrance of our natural world be dimmed?
Support dark skies and Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin
Part of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin’s mission is to protect and sustain our flourishing ecosystems so that diverse communities in the state are inspired to value and advocate for them. We work with a network of conservation partners that serve natural areas home to nighttime endangered and threatened flora, fauna, and their habitat.
Support NRF by purchasing Dark Skies: Rare Phenomena in America’s National Parks photography book. 20% of the profits are directly donated to Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.
Guest Blogger
Jeff Pfaller
Photographer
Jeff Pfaller is an award-winning photographer and has visited all 7 continents, all 50 U.S. states in the U.S, and over 20 countries. He funds his wanderlust and parkaholic habits as a content strategist. He lives in Chicago with his wife, three children, and rotating menagerie of animals.
His latest landscape photography book, Dark Skies, seeks to help people experience public lands like Apostle Islands and Kettle Moraine in a new way by celebrating rare moments in the night sky.
Written by Jeff Pfaller
Dark Skies Webinar – Photography and Conservation
Join award-winning and Midwest-born photographer Jeff Pfaller to explore why dark skies matter to Wisconsin, where stargazers can go to view the stars, and how to capture your first photo of the night sky.
When: Tuesday, September 22
Where: Zoom Webinar
Cost: Free
Save the Date: NRF’s Photo Contest returns September 15th
Inspired to share your photography? Check out the Foundation’s annual Photo Contest!
Every year, we invite you to share your best photos of nature in Wisconsin with us. There are five categories for photo submissions: Landscapes, Birds, Flora & Fungi, Insects, Amphibians, & Reptiles, and People & Other Mammals. Additionally, we have the People’s Choice Award where — you guessed it — the public gets to decide the winner.
We can’t wait to see Wisconsin’s natural beauty through your lens! Submit your photos from September 15th through November 1st.