Tag: Big Bear

Southern California lost a conservation champion as the Friends of Big Bear Valley announced the death Wednesday of Sandy Steers, a biologist and the group’s executive director, at the age of 73.

The group marked Steers’ death “with heavy hearts and great sadness.” The environmental education nonprofit said it would be providing more information but asked for “time to grieve and process this sad news.”

Although Steers spearheaded many projects and fought developers who tried to build in Big Bear Valley, she was perhaps best known for her eagle advocacy.

Eagles typically only visit Big Bear to find food in the winter when their normal sources of sustenance have frozen over, according to the Friends of Big Bear Valley.

That changed in 2009 when a male juvenile from Catalina began to nest in Big Bear during the summer. Shortly after, a pair of eagles nested on the north side, bolstering Big Bear Valley’s role as vital habitat for the birds of prey.

By the fall of 2011, the first bald eagle chick, named Jackie, hatched in the Big Bear Valley to parents Ricky and Lucy.

Friends of Big Bear Valley documented and monitored the eagles and spent two years fundraising and planning for their biggest venture: installing cameras trained on the eagles’ nest.

Steers and the Friends of Big Bear Valley turned the local nesting eagles into a sensation, with thousands of monthly fans logging in to the camera feed to keep track of the arrival of new adults and their offspring.

Jackie, the hatchling from 2011, is now the star of a 24-hour webcam that monitors her and her partner, Shadow, 145 feet up in a Jeffrey pine overlooking Big Bear Lake.

In 2025, three eaglets hatched and two survived and eventually left the nest.

It was that inside access provided by Steers and that Friends of Big Bear Valley that kept thousands of viewers coming back.

The “Truman Show”-like window into the eagles’ lives has played a major role in their fame, but it doesn’t fully explain it. Other nest cams across the country don’t get as much attention.

Jenny Voisard, media and website manager for Friends of Big Bear Valley, chalks it up partly to Jackie’s and Shadow’s highly individual personalities. There’s also the dedication of the nonprofit and its volunteers. Steers, who once volunteered as an eagle counter for the U.S. Forest Service, became a key authority on Jackie and Shadow.

Years ago, Steers dedicated herself to keeping an eye on a newly hatched chick, watching as it grew and eventually took flight.

“She totally fell in love with this eagle,” Voisard said. That eagle is believed to be Jackie.

Roughly 25 years ago, the original anti-development nonprofit, the Friends of the Fawnskin, named for the Big Bear Lake north shore community, was formed to fight a planned area residential development. Steers, who had just moved into the area from the more developed south shore, joined the group. Most of those founders eventually segued to the newer Friends of Big Bear Valley in the 2010s.

Steers helped lead a push against San Diego businessman Irving Okovita, who sought to build a 132-condominium, 175-slip marina on 12.5 acres of Grout Bay territory on the North Shore in the early 2000s.

She was even named in a lawsuit that accused her of blocking the project but that eventually died in 2006, along with the development.

Although that effort fizzled, another found success.

In September, San Bernardino County supervisors approved the 50-home project called Moon Camp despite claims that it will take away valuable foraging areas for the raptors. San Bernardino County officials insist the project won’t harm the eagles, saying it went through “extensive environmental review” to ensure that.

The site is less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow’s nest, and would be visible from the 24-hour live cam.

Bald eagle eggs only hatch about 50% of the time, but the success rate seemed even lower in Big Bear. The camera was installed to help wildlife experts figure out what was going on, Voisard said. A second camera capturing a wider view of their habitat was added in 2021.

Today, a small squad of volunteers and contractors watch and record data on Jackie and Shadow every second of the day. Some observers are overseas to keep tabs when those in the U.S. are sleeping. They track who is in the nest and count every stick and “fluff” delivery. They document eagle calls, mating and all things egg.

The nonprofit also keeps a public-facing “eagle log,” which provides updates on what the power couple is up to, along with analysis of their behaviors and educational tidbits.

Steers “believed that having a balance of story, and science is the way to reach people,” Voisard said. “This was all her vision.”

The fandom transcends nationality, religion, age and political persuasion, she said. Many schools use the nest cam as an educational tool, introducing kids to Jackie and Shadow. Older and disabled watchers are able to connect to nature they may not be able to easily access. Some emergency room workers watch to unwind from their stressful jobs.

As for Steers, the renaissance woman had a bachelor’s degree in biology from UCLA, but her interests took her in numerous directions.

“She worked for NASA, led tours in the Galapagos and ran a technology consulting company,” Voisard told The Times. “She also was a screenwriter and author.”

She was a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), the Inca tradition of Shamanic Healing and believed in past lives.

Her spiritually was formed after she recovered from Stage 4 cancer through the use of alternative techniques, according to her website.

Steers will long be remembered for her connection with and support of Jackie and Shadow. She spoke with The Times in 2024 about the lessons the pair had for the fans of their webcam.

They “are extremely resilient and strong. … I like to think they’re teaching people resilience and to take things as they come.”

Staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.