BIG BEAR — A bird with a striking wingspan swoops down into a towering Jeffrey pine tree and below, cheers erupt on a pontoon boat idling on Big Bear Lake.
Shadow, one-half of a famous bald eagle couple, drops off a fish to his two growing chicks — something the boaters confirm thanks to a nonstop livestream of the nest.
It’s a joyous moment, yet there’s an undercurrent of sadness. These watchers, including staff and volunteers with Friends of Big Bear Valley, are about to gather to honor Sandy Steers, the nonprofit’s late executive director and the force behind its nest cam. At the same time, the organization is racing to raise $10 million by the end of July to protect a swath of land along the lake’s north shore from becoming a gated community.
On Saturday, about 100 people came together at Big Bear’s Veterans Park for Steers’ memorial, as the nearby lake glittered and swallows weaved through blue skies. Recordings of the event have more than 53,000 views. More than a dozen speakers reflected on the multifaceted Steers, a biologist who was 73 when she succumbed to cancer in February: She took race car driving lessons, worked for NASA and, most notably, turned a pair of unassuming eagles into an international phenomenon.
Steers’ fierce defense of the local environment began long before its bald eagles became a digital sensation. She was a founding member of a nonprofit formed in 2001 to fight a housing development called Moon Camp. That nonprofit would become Friends of Big Bear Valley, which, all these years later, is fundraising to stop the same project.
Shelley Egan, one of two interim executive directors replacing Steers, called her predecessor “a Disney princess.” She explained, “Not that she wore the gowns and stuff like that, but she fed the animals, she fed the birds, she invited them onto her porch, into her home, onto her hand.”
Others painted her as an opinionated woman willing to go to the mat for the creatures she dedicated her life to.
Tim Krantz, professor emeritus at the University of Redlands, recalled being tapped along with Steers to serve as expert witnesses for the eagles in a lawsuit against a developer over a different project.
Wearing a light pink dress and a warm smile, “she looked like everyone’s sweetest grandmother,” he said. Yet “she completely judo chopped the defense’s legal team. They didn’t know how to deal with her.”
Joy Benedict, a journalist with CBS L.A., met Steers about a decade ago while doing her first story on Jackie, Shadow’s mate. It was around the time that the nest cam was installed. She kept making the drive up as the eagles generated news, captivated by the woman who gave them their platform.
“No one was excited to see the growing family more than Sandy,” Benedict said, relating a time when Steers cried with excitement when three chicks hatched.
“But as much as I spoke with Sandy over the years about her beloved eagles, when I asked her about her personal life, she kind of deflected,” she added. “She’d say things like, ‘I’m still waiting for my Shadow,’ and I’d say, ‘So am I,’ and we’d laugh, and we’d move on. But after she died, I wish I would have pried a little more out of this woman that we all loved. I wish I would have shared a little more of myself.”
Friends of Big Bear Valley was preparing to launch the fundraiser to halt a 50-home and 55-slip marina project when Steers died. Last September, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved Moon Camp. At the time, county officials insisted the project wouldn’t harm the bald eagles, saying it underwent an “extensive environmental review” to ensure that.
But the nonprofit maintains that Jackie and Shadow use the land as a prime foraging area, and the development — less than a mile from their nest — will deprive them of a rare slice of undeveloped forest in the bustling vacation destination.
In a 2018 Times article, a spokesperson for RCK Properties, which owns the land, called the project “truly special,” adding that “there are lots of people in Los Angeles and Orange counties who would love to build a home” there. According to the article, the design at the time precluded development on the eagles’ lakefront hunting grounds.
Pressing on without its dedicated leader, Friends of Big Bear Valley has raised more than $3.3 million to date, largely through small donations. Steers willed $50,000 to the cause.
If all goes according to plan, the San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust will conserve the roughly 63 acres, with the possibility of transferring it to the U.S. Forest Service.
Steve Foulkes, a vice president for RCK, confirmed the land trust has the option to buy the site for $10 million by July 31. He declined to comment on claims made by Friends of Big Bear Valley about the development.
If the fundraiser falls short, the land trust could borrow the rest of the money, “which will be tough,” or partner with another organization to buy the land, said Jenny Voisard, media and website manager for Friends of Big Bear Valley.
“Failure is not an option,” Voisard said. “We’re not going to let them build on it.” From the pontoon, she pointed out the marshy shore and sea of pines at stake.
In the canopy of the Jeffrey pine, nature continues to move forward, indifferent to the change and controversy below. Jackie and Shadow’s youngsters — now teens by eagle standards — are hopping and flapping their wings as they prepare for their first flight, known as fledging.
On Friday, several groups of fans aimed their spotting scopes and binoculars at the nest from Dana Point Park.
“I was hoping they hadn’t fledged yet because they’re getting close. That’s an exciting time,” said Audrey Pope, of Santa Ana, who was with her husband, Brian. The Popes’ granddaughter turned them on to the eagles and now they watch online “24/7.”
Nearby, Lezlie Harris, holding a small, calm dog, explained that she started watching the raptors about two years ago, “when things were at a low point in America but I needed to not do doomsday.”
Even with trials, like a harrowing storm that claimed the life of a chick last year, it did the trick. Harris, who moved from Las Vegas to Costa Rica a little over a year ago, said the first thing she does every day is fire up the livestream on YouTube. Though she had never met Steers, she planned her trip to Big Bear to coincide with the memorial.
The livestream “brought me joy,” she said. “It brought me happy.”
This spring, the chicks were dubbed Luna and Sandy, a nod to Steers, with local third graders making the final call in a community naming contest. When they finally take wing, Steers’ name will be carried on the wind.
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