Have You Heard? New Study Shows America’s Quietest Places

by Shalen Lowell
Spring 2015 Intern

When I wake up on a spring morning, the first thing I notice—after the cool breeze and chirping of birds—is the rush of cars from the highway about a mile from my house. The hustle and bustle of life in the United States is evident in the ambient noise around us—and it does not go unnoticed. Based on data that was collected over the past ten summers from 546 sites in the contiguous United States, scientists have designed a map that highlights the quietest and loudest places in our country. This color-coded map, wherein dark blue indicates the quietest locations, while yellow and white indicate the loudest, clearly shows the varying noise levels based on a total of 1.5 million hours of acoustic monitoring.

If you’re searching out some of these peaceful places, make sure to steer clear of the East Coast! As much as I love calling the Northeast my home, it’s definitely not one of the quietest places, with bustling cities like Boston and New York. The noise in major cities such as these ranges between 48 and 67 decibels (dB). To give you an idea of what a decibel really means, that range is between the noise level of a “conversation at home” and a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner can be so loud that it’s hard to hold a conversation while it’s running, so consider the fact that the noise in some cities is not too far behind.

The quietest locations on the map include desert areas like in Nevada and Arizona, the northwest states bordering Canada, and northern Maine. What is the overall quietest area, you ask? The Basin and Range region boasts the least amount of noise, including different mountain ranges and desert terrain across several western states. Some locations in that area, like Yellowstone National Park, register as low as 20 dB. Most other places in the United States have not been that quiet since the European colonization.

The data found from this study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held in February of 2015 in San Jose. The meeting included a panel on how human-made noise and nighttime lighting affect different types of organisms, especially birds. The National Park Service will also use this map to figure out exactly where human noise affects wildlife. Animals like owls and bats, for example, have more sensitive ears than humans, and human-made noise, says Emily Underwood of AAAS’s Science journal, “drowns out the faint rustles of insects and rodents they need to hunt.”

The next time you step outside, think about the noise around you. You may be used to the hum of traffic and the honking of car horns, but there are other places around the United States where silence still reigns.

Did You Know

After going on a mission to find the quietest place in the United States, acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton launched an independent research project in Olympia National Park in Washington concerning noise levels in the surrounding areas. His goal was to protect one especially quiet area of the park near the Hoh River Trail—taking a stand against noise pollution.