Star trails above the church at Wollseifen, Eifel National Park, the first place in Germany to receive dark-sky status.

The International Dark Sky Association has announced that it provisionally named Eifel National Park in Germany as the first International Dark Sky Park in the country.

"We welcome Eifel National Park into the elite roll of International Dark Sky Parks and commend their exceptional public outreach efforts in the surrounding areas," said IDA Executive Director Bob Parks. "The creation of Germany's first International Dark Sky Park, coming so soon after the announcement of its first Dark Sky Reserve, shows a growing interest in night sky conservation that Germany and all of Europe can be proud of."

Eifel is the first and only German National Park in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is also one of the youngest in the German National Park system, created in 2004. Eifel covers 42 square miles of territory in west-central Germany near and along the Belgian border.

Its "provisional" status means that full certification within the International Dark Sky Places Program is contingent upon achieving better than 90 percent participation among communities in the National Park by 2017.

Eifel National Park Superintendent Henning Walter believes the IDA designation will have a significant impact well beyond its borders. "It will let many people encounter the value of a starry night sky and a natural nightscape with its animals," Walter explained. "I hope the IDA award will further motivate neighboring communities to reduce light pollution."

The effort to save Eifel's dark skies was led by Harald Bardenhagen, CEO of Astronomie-Werkstatt "Sterne ohne Grenzen," an astronomy education institution. Dubbed the "Star-Warrior of Cologne" by local media, Bardenhagen took on the monumental task of convincing dozens of communities in and around the park that restrictions on outdoor lighting would protect the National Park without threatening their safety and security.

"The implementation of a dark-sky protection area in densely-populated parts of Europe is challenging," Bardenhagen said. "For this task one does not only need spirit and enthusiasm to promote dark skies and the value of a nightscape without light pollution. One also needs to demonstrate the advantages of illumination alternatives to address the broad range of problems caused by artificial light at night such as energy waste, greenhouse gas emission, and potential harm to human health and biodiversity."

For more information about IDA and its mission, please visit darksky.org.

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