Sandra “Sandy” Steers, the executive director of the Friends of Big Bear Valley, famous for their webcams of a mated pair of bald eagles, has died.
Fawnskin resident Steers, 73, died on Wednesday, Feb. 11. She had been fighting cancer for the last several years, according to Jennifer Voisard, media and website manager for the Friends of Big Bear Valley.
“She was working on beating that,” Voisard said Thursday. “She was working until the very end.”
The Friends of Big Bear Valley will celebrate its 25-year anniversary in July. Steers was there from the start.
“She has been the executive director and really been Friends of Big Bear Valley herself for the last 20 years herself before she started expanding,” after the popularity of the group’s webcam exploded, Voisard said. “She’s pretty much been the heart and soul of the organization.”
The first camera was installed in October 2015 on the branch where eagles Jackie and Shadow nest. A second camera was installed in 2021, on a nearby tree, for a wider view. Both are 145 feet in the air and solar powered.
“She was a very kind and calm person. She was very wise. She loved Jackie and Shadow. She loved all nature. All creatures great and small,” Voisard said. “She always had a poise and an energy about her. People liked to be around her and hear what she had to say.”
The cameras’ popularity exploded a few years ago.
“It was a little surreal for Sandy, because she’s a very down to earth person,” Voisard said. “So the popularity, I don’t know, she had a good attitude about it. She liked all the opportunities for education and the ability to connect so many people with nature. That’s what made her happy.”
Steers grew up in Indianapolis, she told the Big Bear Grizzly in 2024. She studied aerospace engineering at Purdue University before moving to Lancaster for a job at Edwards Air Force Base with NASA. But, realizing her scientific passions lay elsewhere, Steers pivoted, getting a degree in biology at UCLA and led boat tours in the Galapagos Islands. It was about this time she had her first bout of cancer, which she beat, and was cancer-free for 30 years as of 2024. She also worked as a film producer and screenwriter and had served as the co-president of the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival.
On Facebook, fans mourned Steers’ death.
“A life well lived,” Tracy Silberman-Frick posted Wednesday evening. “If Jackie and Shadow have a successful 2nd clutch, perhaps an eaglet should be named for her?”
The two eggs laid this year by Jackie and Shadow cracked on Jan. 30, their contents eaten by ravens.
“I loved reading anything she wrote or listening to anything she said,” Marla Yeomans posted. “She was a very smart, extremely articulate, knowledgeable and loved to teach us all about nature in the Big Bear area.”
Leticia Porter hoped to see Steers’ teachings live on.
“She wrote beautifully and made us feel like we were on a branch next to the nest keeping watch,” Porter wrote on Facebook. “It would be wonderful if her posts could be complied into a book or blog so she will be remembered and her knowledge will continue to be shared.”
Voisard, who worked with Steers for three years, says Friends of Big Bear Valley will go on.
“We are going to move forward and continue the work that she began but we haven’t met yet to make any long term plans,” she said.
There is no information about a memorial for Steers at this time, Voisard said.
For information about Friends of Big Bear Valley, visit FriendsOfBigBearValley.org.
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- Ravens damage both Big Bear bald eagle eggs
- How Big Bear’s bald eagles became social media stars