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A Big Sur Podcast

A Big Sur Podcast

Von: Magnus Toren host
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A Big Sur Podcast

An ongoing conversation with people from near and far about Big Sur's past, present, and future. A Big Sur Podcast interprets “community” to mean ALL people from around the world who are curious about, and who care about, the preservation and restoration of the wild and rural character of Big Sur. Stories are told by visitors and residents, plumbers and linesmen, musicians and authors, dancers and jugglers and others. Sometimes we drift (way) off-topic into the arts, sciences, personal stories, gossip, politics, philosophy, ornithology, Henry Miller, and our zeitgeist in general. We like that!

The opinions expressed here belong to the people who express them. They may or may not line up with yours, mine, or your neighbor’s — and that’s exactly the point. Different perspectives, lived experiences, and even wildly clashing views are what make conversations worth listening to: enriching, infuriating, life-affirming, and sometimes all three at once.

If you are planning a visit to Big Sur and you listen to some of the folks on this Podcast talk about their love of the place your visit will probably be a lot more rewarding. Please email magnus@henrymiller.org with any comments, critique & suggestions.

Music intro clip courtesy John Holm: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0Rh2QU

Sound editing software by Hindenburg: https://hindenburg.com/

Please support the podcast by making a donation to the Henry Miller Library, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization. Thank you!

© 2026 A Big Sur Podcast Musik Reiseliteratur & Erläuterungen Sozialwissenschaften Wissenschaft
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  • # 135 Living with Fire: Big Sur. THE PATTERN OF FIRE, Nikki Nedeff on What the Santa Lucias Remember

    # 135 Living with Fire: Big Sur. THE PATTERN OF FIRE, Nikki Nedeff on What the Santa Lucias Remember
    Oct 4 2026
    What happens to the land after the fire engines leave?In this fifth conversation in our Living with Fire: Big Sur series, I talk with biogeographer, vegetation ecologist, teacher and conservation advocate Nikki Nedeff about the Timber and Plaskett Fires—not primarily as emergencies to be fought, but as ecological events whose consequences may unfold for decades.Nikki grew up exploring the Carmel River and Los Padres National Forest, studied biogeography at UC Berkeley, and taught plant-community ecology at Cal State Monterey Bay for fifteen years. Her work has centered on understanding and protecting the extraordinarily varied landscapes of Monterey County.Her starting point is deceptively simple: California vegetation isn't merely “adapted to fire.” It is adapted to a pattern of burning—a fire regime. How often does a place burn? How hot? In what season? Across what kind of terrain? And what happened there the last time it burned?Too much fire, too soon, can change the vegetation itself. Forest can become shrubland; shrubland can give way to grassland; invasive annual grasses and shrubs can exploit disturbed ground and alter what burns the next time.We talk about north- and south-facing slopes, fog and microclimates, logging and grazing, Indigenous burning, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen, invasive plants, old redwood forests that aren't always as “old growth” as they appear, and the ecological consequences of the firebreaks and dozer lines created to fight wildfire.Nikki worries particularly about some of Big Sur's unusual conifers: Santa Lucia fir, ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir and incense-cedar. She wonders what has happened to a remarkable isolated dogwood near Logwood Creek—and what she will find when she returns to the Plaskett burn.But burned country also holds surprises. Nikki is looking forward to the spring emergence of the “fire followers”: plants whose seeds may wait for years or decades until fire creates the conditions that allow them to germinate.And then there is the coming winter.Burned slopes above roads, streams and homes bring the possibility of erosion, washouts, landslides and debris flows. Nikki's advice to those of us who live here is simple: prepare, remain self-sufficient—and look after one another.Plants mentioned in the conversationSanta Lucia fir / bristlecone fir — Abies bracteataA remarkable conifer found naturally only in the Santa Lucia Mountains. Nikki describes its vulnerability to fire and its tendency to survive in steep, rocky places where fire has difficulty carrying.Pacific dogwood — probably Cornus nuttalliiThe identification is probable rather than certain because Nikki simply calls it “dogwood.” Her description—large white floral bracts, a species otherwise associated with montane California, and an isolated Big Sur population—is consistent with Pacific dogwood. She calls the surviving Logwood Creek population the “Logwood Dogwood” and wonders whether it survived Timber.Douglas-fir — Pseudotsuga menziesiiNikki is particularly interested in what happened to Douglas-fir in the Willow Creek watershed during the Plaskett Fire.Incense-cedar — Calocedrus decurrensAnother unusual Central Coast conifer occurring in scattered Santa Lucia populations.Ponderosa pine — Pinus ponderosaOne of the conifers Nikki worries may have difficulty regenerating when fire returns before young trees become mature enough to reproduce.Coast redwood — Sequoia sempervirensNikki reminds us that much of what looks ancient in Big Sur's redwood country is actually second- or even third-growth following historic logging.Sargent cypress — Hesperocyparis sargentiiFound around serpentine outcrops in the South Coast/Los Burros country. Nikki is eager to see how these areas responded to Plaskett.Harlequin lupine — Lupinus stiversiiThe distinctive yellow-and-magenta lupine Nikki mentions among the wildflowers she hopes to see in the first post-fire spring.Santa Lucia phacelia — Phacelia griseaA California endemic occurring in the Santa Lucia Range and one of the post-fire flowers Nikki hopes to encounter.Shortlobe phacelia — Phacelia brachylobaThe fire-following phacelia shown in Nikki's photograph after the 2020 Dolan Fire. This is distinct from the Santa Lucia phacelia mentioned in the conversation.Splendid woodland-gilia — Saltugilia splendensFormerly known as Gilia splendens. Another striking annual Nikki mentions among the post-fire wildflowers.Chamise — Adenostoma fasciculatumOne of the characteristic shrubs of California chaparral and a vigorous post-fire resprouter.Manzanita — Arctostaphylos spp.Nikki speaks of watching for manzanitas resprouting; she doesn't identify a particular species.Ceanothus — Ceanothus spp.Another important chaparral group whose response depends greatly upon species and fire history.California coffeeberry — Frangula californicaA native shrub Nikki expects to see resprouting.French broom ...
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    1 Std. und 9 Min.
  • LIVING WITH FIRE: BIG SUR - Kate Daniels, Responsibility Without Authority

    LIVING WITH FIRE: BIG SUR - Kate Daniels, Responsibility Without Authority
    Oct 2 2026

    What happens when local knowledge meets the machinery of government during the Timber and Plaskett Fires.

    This is the fourth conversation in Living With Fire: Big Sur, an ongoing A Big Sur Podcast examination of the Timber and Plaskett Fires and of Big Sur’s larger relationship with wildfire.

    The previous conversations have taken us to some different parts of the same emergency. Marcus Foster described experienced local residents protecting threatened properties during the early days of the Timber Fire and the sometimes difficult meeting between local knowledge and professional incident command. Lucas Handy brought us to the South Coast and into the remarkable sequence of experiencing Timber and then, only days later, responding to the Plaskett Fire close to his home and family at Treebones. Kate Novoa—Big Sur Kate—looked at another essential part of an emergency: information, rumor, verification and trust.

    Now we follow some of those same voices into government.

    Kate Daniels is Monterey County Supervisor for the Fifth District, which includes Big Sur. She first appeared on A Big Sur Podcast in 2023, when she was still a candidate. In that conversation she talked about wanting to be bold and visionary, about governing as a facilitator, and about treating elected office as a temporary opportunity to make a difference.

    The Timber and Plaskett Fires gave those ideas a very different meaning.

    Daniels describes recognizing early that Timber would not be an incident measured in hours; the extraordinary Monday when residents on a threatened ridge were asking for firefighting resources; her efforts to carry their information to Senator John Laird and CAL FIRE; and the realization that Big Sur needed a better way of getting reliable, on-the-ground information into county government.

    Out of that came nightly meetings connecting community organizations and residents with the County Administrative Office. Daniels describes an evolving chain of communication: local people to community representatives, those representatives to the county, and the county to the agencies with the authority to act.

    The conversation also exposes one of the central tensions of emergency government: responsibility without complete authority. A supervisor may be the person constituents call, but decisions about fire tactics, evacuation orders, Highway 1 closures and other critical actions belong to different agencies and officials.

    We talk about CAL FIRE and the Forest Service, the Sheriff, CHP, Caltrans, the Emergency Operations Center, CERT, CABS and Big Sur Fire. We return repeatedly to the value—and the complications—of local knowledge: residents who know obscure ridge roads, water sources, turnarounds, fire history and the capabilities of their own properties in ways that an incoming crew simply cannot know immediately.

    Daniels also talks candidly about frustration, anger, mistakes, strained relationships, and the need to preserve those relationships even while arguing forcefully for the community she represents.

    And the conversation does not end when the flames recede.

    With large burn scars above the coast, attention is already shifting toward winter: debris flows, blocked culverts, Highway 1, stream and river channels and the possibility that the next phase of this emergency will arrive with the rain.

    Perhaps the most important question running through this episode is the one that has emerged across the entire series:

    How do we take the knowledge, relationships and improvisations that helped during these fires and turn them into something that already exists when the next one begins?

    Living With Fire: Big Sur continues with additional voices from the community, government, science and emergency response.

    All comments much welcomed!

    Support the show

    _________________________________________________


    This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County!

    Let us know what you think!
    SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊
    magnus@henrymiller.org

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    1 Std. und 19 Min.
  • # 133 Living With Fire: Big Sur - Kate — How do we know what we know when Big Sur is burning?

    # 133 Living With Fire: Big Sur - Kate — How do we know what we know when Big Sur is burning?
    Sep 27 2026

    This is the third conversation in Living With Fire: Big Sur, an ongoing A Big Sur Podcast series examining the Timber and Plaskett Fires from different points of view—and asking what they can tell us about living with wildfire in Big Sur.

    Previous episodes:
    # 131 Living With Fire: Big Sur - Marcus Foster on the Timber Fire, Local Knowledge, and What Comes Next
    # 132 Living With Fire: Big Sur — Lucas Handy, When the Fire Came South

    LINKS:
    Watch Duty
    Big Sur Fire
    Community Association of Big Sur
    Fire Adapted Big Sur
    &
    Big Sur Kate Online

    Kate Novoa—known to almost everyone around here as Big Sur Kate—started her blog during the 2008 Basin Complex Fire. What began as an improvised way of getting accurate information to her neighbors has become an extraordinary running record of Big Sur: fires, storms, slides, Highway 1 closures, government decisions, community disputes and everyday life.

    During the Plaskett Fire, however, Kate suddenly found herself on the other side of that information system. Away from home and unable to return because of the evacuation, she received word that her house had burned. For a short time she believed it. Then she began doing exactly what she has done for the rest of us for eighteen years: checking the source, withholding judgment, finding someone closer to what had actually happened, and waiting for confirmation.

    Her house had survived, although the fire damaged her water system and burned frighteningly close.

    That experience opens into a much larger conversation.

    We talk about rumor and verification; how Kate decides whom to trust; the difference between official information and local knowledge; why the first hours of an emergency are so difficult; her work with Watch Duty; what a deeply local reporter can contribute that a national emergency-information system cannot; and why knowing who knows may be just as important as knowing the information yourself.

    Kate also talks about the archive she has unintentionally created. Thousands of posts dating back to 2008 now amount to something close to a contemporaneous history of modern Big Sur—and she is beginning to think seriously about who will preserve and continue it.

    And, inevitably, we talk about Highway 1, the coming winter, burned watersheds, the possibility of renewed slides and isolation, and the peculiar Big Sur habit of fighting with one's neighbors right up until the moment something terrible happens—at which point everybody helps everybody! (-:

    Near the end I return to something Kate told me years ago about falling in love with Big Sur.

    After fires, evacuations, slides and nearly losing her home, I ask whether she still feels the same way.

    Her answer is very simple:

    “More. I love it even more.”

    __________________________

    More Living With Fire: Big Sur conversations are coming, including Monterey County District 5 Supervisor Kate Daniels, biogeographer and ecologist Nikki Nedeff, co-founder of Watch Duty John Mills, and others involved in the fires, the response and the larger question of how Big Sur prepares for what comes next.

    All comments much welcomed!

    Support the show

    _________________________________________________


    This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County!

    Let us know what you think!
    SEND US AN EMAIL! 😊
    magnus@henrymiller.org

    FaceBook
    Instagram
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    56 Min.
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