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In Big Bear, a coalition of activists and environmental advocates is mobilizing efforts to secure funding to halt a luxury housing and marina project that threatens local wildlife. This development is planned to take place less than a mile from the nesting site of bald eagles Jackie and Shadow.
The conservation organization, Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), has voiced concerns over the proposed construction, which would occupy Moon Camp—an untouched area vital for bald eagle foraging and home to a rare, endangered plant species.
Critics of the project argue that the addition of marina slips and 50 residential properties could have a profoundly negative impact on the local ecosystem, affecting both wildlife and plant life adversely.
FOBBV, led by its late executive director Sandy Steers until her passing on February 11, has been at the forefront of efforts to resist such developments for nearly a quarter of a century.
Activists said the project, which includes plans for marina slips and 50 residential properties, would ensure “significant detrimental impact” to wildlife and plant life.
FOBBV and its executive director, Sandy Steers, who passed away on Feb. 11, have been fighting development efforts for nearly 25 years.
The group has also filed multiple lawsuits on behalf of the Bald Eagles, San Bernardino flying squirrels and the rare Ash-gray Indian Paintbrush that call the area home. Wildlife activists said the development would likely drive Jackie and Shadow, along with other wildlife, away from the area permanently.
“When they first went to announce their plan to develop, they hadn’t done any environmental studies at all, so Friends of Big Bear Valley worked with other groups to get those done,” explained Jenny Voisard, a spokesperson with Friends of Big Bear Valley. “We actually won the case in 2022. However, the developer was able to go back and redo the study.”
The revised study convinced San Bernardino County officials to approve the development project to activists’ dismay.
Before Steers passed away, she brokered a deal with the developers who own the land, RCK Properties, who said they would sell the property to the San Bernardino Mountain Land Trust, a nonprofit land conservancy.
However, the group would need to raise $10 million by July 31 to purchase and preserve the nearly 63-acre lakefront property.
“We very much hope that we will have raised the money [by then],” Voisard said. “If we do not, then we will use what we have and look towards some kind of financing option.”
The fight to preserve Moon Camp was Steers’ main priority before she passed and now her colleagues and fellow community members are continuing the effort to save the land.
“We need everyone to become Jackie and Shadow’s hero,” Steers said before her passing. “Every single Bald Eagle is an amazing individual being with the right to thrive. Big Bear Valley is the seventh most biologically diverse ecosystem in the country. It is essential that we protect and preserve our unique and rare species. There are some that exist nowhere else in the world but here. Please help today, tomorrow and the next day. We don’t have much time to protect Jackie and Shadow’s habitat and keep their foraging area from being destroyed.”
So far, organizers have raised nearly $200,000.
Those interested in donating to help save Moon Camp can do so at savemooncamp.org. More information about Moon Camp can be found here.