Big Bear Lake not dry, but megadrought means challenges, big ideas
Look up, and lucky visitors to Big Bear Lake’s north shore this summer might be able to spot the mountain community’s famous trio of bald eagles. But in recent weeks, visitors have looked down and seen some less natural things along the lake’s rapidly expanding shoreline. There was a decaying torso from a mannequin that popped up overnight. There were shotgun shells, dock weights that looked to be decades old, and pull tabs from soda cans that have been banned since 1980. The vintage debris is not as shocking as the dead bodies that have emerged from a shrinking Lake Mead. But the sightings are a sign of just how low Big Bear Lake has become during this record-setting megadrought.