Live In Minnesota? Residents Asked To Go Dark Right Now

Residents in Minnesota are being asked to help with an interesting and life-saving project - to go dark.

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Remember When U.S. Bank in Minnesota Was Considered a Death Trap?

If you haven't had a chance to step inside of U.S. Bank Stadium, add that to your bucket list. This is one of my favorite places in our state. Personally, I haven't been there to see the Vikings play but I have watched Taylor Swift perform there twice.

After this massive stadium was built, instead of it being known as the "Home of the Vikings", it was known as a death trap. The glass sides were killing birds in large quantities. One report by the City Pages indicated that after two hours, a volunteer group walking around the stadium found 60 dead birds and 14 birds that were stunned. PETA even got involved and asked advocates to send a "polite note" to the General Manager of U.S .Bank Stadium after they learned that 111 birds were killed due to flying into U.S. Bank Stadium.

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Here's How Minnesota Residents Can Help Right Now

Minnesota is in the flight path for birds, no matter what building is standing in its way. 250 species have already started flying through the air during migration and they need all of us to help them out as they are flying at night. And the ask is simple, just turn your lights off.

"Turn out lights to help migrating birds! March 15 - May 31 is peak migration time in Minnesota. Turn off exterior and unneeded indoor lights (or close the shades) from midnight until dawn. Turning out the lights could save thousands of lives!" - www.audubon.org

Got Kids That Always Leave The Lights On?

Every night I feel like I'm constantly walking around my house shutting lights off. If your kids are always leaving the lights on at your house too, teach them about the migration of birds in Minnesota. Sometimes, lessons like this help encourage them to incorporate better habits and as I tell my kids, "Help Change The World".

Who knows, maybe someday your child will be the person who makes the decision about putting bird-safe glass on a large structure in downtown Minneapolis and they will remember this lesson from when they were a child. Small steps make a big difference.