Downtown Fort Worth will turn considerably darker at the stroke of midnight.
From now through May 31st, the downtown Fort Worth skyline will be dark from midnight to 6:00 a.m., in an effort to save the lives of migrating birds.
The nationwide bird migration usually takes place at night, and light from buildings attracts and disorients migrating birds, increasing the chances of them colliding with buildings.
"This is a great educational opportunity for our entire community to take one proactive step to protect these migrating bird populations." says Cody Whittenburg, Fort Worth environmental manager. "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."
At least seven downtown Fort Worth buildings are taking part in the nationwide Lights Out initiative so far:
Bank of America Tower
Burnett Plaza
Cash America
First on 7th
Fort Worth City Hall
Frost Tower
Pier I Building
777Main
The Tower
Trinity Terrace
Wells Fargo Tower
"It’s so important for all of us to act locally to support our global environment, and this is just one small way we can do our part," says Laura Bird, president of Anthracite Realty Partners LLC, Frost Tower. "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."
Aside from saving the lives of migrating birds, turning the lights off saves energy and in effect money.