Big Sur Burns: Who Is Thriving? An Eco Gerontology Reflection
- Monica Eastway
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
It has been a challenging summer here in Big Sur, as I continue to reflect on the fires, overtourism, the economy, and those visiting this awe-inspiring place we call Home.
Through the years, I have noticed a new kind of tourist, more disconnected and hurried.
People used to come to Big Sur to see. Now they come to be seen.
The recent Guardian article, After overtourism besieged Big Sur, the worst finally happened: ‘People kept saying someone is going to die’, by Andrew Gumbel, is timely and offers a unique view into how human-Nature disconnection is impacting our experience of Home here in Big Sur.
“Wildfires, road closures and repeated disruptions to the local hotel, restaurant and campsite businesses all have posed significant challenges in an era of climate change and unpredictable weather patterns."
"Residents of the area have long known that the threat of natural catastrophe is part of what it means to live in a remote and beautiful place. But for many, the events of this summer have renewed questions about the sustainability of mass tourism in the area, particularly in the age of Instagram.”
The highway is now open, and it is Labor Day weekend. I am relieved for our neighbors who had to evacuate and are now returning Home to begin the healing process.
Being in the shelter-in-place zone offered a literal bird’s-eye-view. We were not in danger of the fire’s path, yet we had a front-row seat to the controlled burns being used to help prevent the fire from entering the valley filled with homes and businesses.
The Timber Fire started on August 8th, and we have been adapting to the smoke, heat, and uncertainty that fires at this scale bring. Then, on August 26th, another fire in Big Sur, the Plaskett Fire, ignited farther south, burning in areas that have not burned in more than 50 years. Both fires are still burning as I write this.
As I stood on the roof of “the shop” on Friday, August 28th, gazing toward Mount Manuel burning, instead of fear, I felt enormous awe to be living in this magnificent place. I watched the fire breathe, witnessing the sounds and shifting light of the flames, offering my respect and honor.
The flora of our bioregion is well adapted to fire, literally baked into the topography of this wild landscape: coastal redwoods, ceanothus, manzanita, toyon, yucca, and more.
Mount Manuel already looks to be regenerating as I listen to the cars rumbling down below.
There has been much to process.
Most importantly, I want to emphasize my extraordinary gratitude for all the firefighters, personnel, local agencies, and community members for their efforts to contain these fires and prevent further damage to homes and businesses.
Resilience is more than our individual ability to prepare for or recover from disruption. Resilience, like care, is reciprocal and relational, shaped by our relationships with one another, our neighbors, communities, the places we call Home, and the living systems upon which we are wholly interdependent.
As the fires burned, a lot of people shared their horror at the pictures circulating. Yet fire has long been a part of this bioregion and plays an important role in biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and the overall health of ecosystems.
Aging in Our Rapidly Climate-Changing World
I moved to Big Sur in the summer of 2012, and during my 14 years here, I have lived through countless natural disasters that have disrupted my employment and my ability to drive to the nearest town for supplies.
I learned early on the incredible value of knowing your neighbors, keeping enough food to last a month or more in the pantry, have at least a few gallons of fresh water in the car, and a packed a bug-out bag ready if evacuation became a reality.
My pioneering work in the multidisciplinary field of Eco Gerontology has been largely shaped by my experience living, working, and learning on this wild coast. When I first arrived in Big Sur, I knew little about the flora, fauna, and human community that call this place Home.
In the Eco Gerontology Seminars, we explore sustainable livability, food, and regenerative economies through core inquiries that include:
How can we grow economic systems that regenerate and are equitable for all, people and Nature?
How can local food practices support thriving communities across generations while honoring ecological limits and cultural wisdom?
The recent fires have also exposed our economic vulnerability. As The Guardian reports, tourism accounts for about 90% of Big Sur’s local economy, and when Highway 1 closes, visitors stop coming, businesses close or slow down, and hourly workers lose income.
A Record Tourism Economy in Monterey County
But Who Is Thriving?
The U.S. Department of Labor describes Labor Day as:
“An annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers.” Labor Day recognizes the contributions workers have made to America’s “strength, prosperity, and well-being.”
What does it mean for a community to prosper?
In May 2026, See Monterey, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization that drives tourism for Monterey County, announced that Monterey County’s tourism economy had reached an all-time high. In 2025, visitors spent a record $3.3 billion in Monterey County, surpassing the previous record set in 2019.
“Tourism supported a record of nearly 28,000 jobs, and state and local tax revenues reached a record $346 million, helping fund essential public services—from infrastructure and public safety to parks and community amenities.”
See Monterey says its work is:
“Focusing on managed growth, sustainability and community benefit—and that’s translating into stronger economic returns.” –Janine Chicourrat, See Monterey Board Chair and Managing Director of Portola Hotel & Spa
Indeed, these are important contributions. Tourism supports livelihoods, small businesses, public services, parks, infrastructure, and communities throughout Monterey County.
And as Kevin Ellis, Board Chair of the Monterey County Hospitality Association, reminds us:
“Behind every tourism dollar is a person, whether a room attendant, server, golf professional, event staff member, chef or small business owner, helping create the Monterey County experience.”
“Together, we are strengthening an industry that supports local jobs, invests back into our communities and helps Monterey County continue to thrive.”
Perhaps it would be advantageous for us to also examine how the people working in this booming tourism industry are doing.
Because another set of Monterey County numbers tells a very different story.
$3.3 Billion in Visitor Spending
The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates that in 2026, a single adult with no children needs to earn $33.44 per hour, or approximately $70,000 per year before taxes, to meet basic needs, including food, housing, and transportation, in Monterey County without relying on public assistance. For a single adult raising one child, the living wage rises to $56.02 per hour, or approximately $116,500 per year.
Nearly 28,000 Tourism Jobs
Many of the occupations that make the visitor experience possible pay considerably less than Monterey County’s living wage.
According to May 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the Salinas metropolitan area, which covers Monterey County, food preparation and serving occupations paid an average of $21.49 per hour, or approximately $44,700 per year.
That leaves a single full-time worker earning approximately $25,000 less per year than MIT’s basic needs estimate for one adult with no children in Monterey County.
A “Thriving Visitor Economy”
Housing & Food Insecurity
The 2025 Monterey County Community Health Needs Assessment found that 42.9% of surveyed community residents experienced food insecurity, meaning they had run out of food during the previous year and/or worried that their food would run out before they had enough money to buy more. On the Monterey Peninsula, the rate was lower but still substantial at 28.1%. In North County Monterey, it was 56.2%.
And this is during regular life and business operations, these numbers become even more meaningful when considered alongside what happened during the recent fires.
When Highway 1 closes and businesses temporarily close with it, hourly workers lose income. Local organizations and neighbors’ step in, sharing resources, food, social connection, financial assistance, and information.
Mutual aid is paramount during climate disruption, though it also raises another important question:
If workers need emergency food or financial assistance after losing only a few weeks of income, what does that tell us about the resilience of the economic system itself?
According The Monterey County Office of Education, during the 2024–2025 school year, approximately 18%, or nearly one in five students, the highest rate in the entire state of California, experienced homelessness.
These are children and families living within one of the most celebrated and economically productive regions in California, known as the "Salad Bowl of the World,” and a county that in 2025 became California’s first countywide certified Blue Zones Community.
Producing healthy, fresh food and helping build a healthy and vibrant community are core to Taylor Farms. As one of Blue Zones Project’s local sponsors, we’ve proudly supported an initiative that aligns so closely with our mission. Seeing our county earn Blue Zones Community certification is a powerful reminder that when local organizations, businesses, and residents come together around well-being, we can create a healthier, more equitable future for all.” – Bruce Taylor, founder Taylor Farms.
That achievement is worth celebrating, and perhaps it also invites us to ask what wellbeing requires at the most fundamental level.
Research and analysis by Sarah Carden, Colleen Fulton, Angela Huffman, and Caroline Nodus, Written by Jessica Cusworth
"Taylor Farms didn’t become one of the nation’s largest produce suppliers just because consumers preferred its brand. It grew as grocery chains, restaurant companies, distributors, and other buyers consolidated and increasingly demanded suppliers that could provide large volumes year-round, serve customers across the country, and produce food under other brands."
"The Cyclospora outbreak put the spotlight on Taylor Farms, but the questions raised by this report go beyond one company or one outbreak. Taylor Farms’ reach shows what can happen when a small number of companies gain enormous power over how food is sourced, processed, and sold, while much of that power remains hidden from the public."
A more resilient produce system requires more than better practices from the largest companies. It requires more competition, more ways for farmers to reach the market, stronger oversight, greater transparency, and policies that stop rewarding consolidation."
Can we create wellbeing and healthy communities without ensuring that the people who live and work within them can afford safe food and a stable place to call Home?
If people are already struggling to afford food and housing during ordinary times, how much capacity do they have to absorb the next fire, flood, landslide, road closure, illness, or interruption in employment? And what happens when these disruptions accumulate across a lifetime?
This is where I believe Eco Gerontology asks us to widen the lens.
The Stanford Center on Longevity’s New Map of Life identifies building financial security from the start as one of the foundations for living longer lives well. Yet if those working today cannot consistently afford their basic needs, how are they supposed to build the financial security necessary for their later years?
If a person is struggling to afford food and housing today, where does retirement savings come from? Where does the emergency fund come from? And what happens when that person reaches older adulthood and may no longer be able to work in the same way?
The workers who make our tourism economy possible today are also our future older adults. These struggles do not suddenly begin in later life. A recent needs assessment of older adults and people with disabilities in Monterey County identified food and housing among the basic needs that remain difficult to meet. How can Monterey County be considered a Blue Zone when basic needs are not being met?
An Age-Friendly Community Must Also be a Livable Community.
Perhaps the question is not simply whether tourism helps Monterey County thrive, but what we mean by thriving, who gets to thrive, and whether the economy supporting one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on Earth supports the wellbeing of the people and places that make that prosperity possible.
Toward a Wellbeing Economy
The Wellbeing Economy Alliance describes a Wellbeing Economy as:
“an economy designed to serve people and the planet, not the other way around.”
A Wellbeing Economy asks us to look beyond economic growth alone and consider whether our economies are supporting the wellbeing of people, communities, and the living world.
From an Eco Gerontology perspective, this matters deeply.
A thriving economy should help create the conditions in which people can live and age well: secure housing, nourishing food, meaningful livelihoods, healthcare, belonging, participation, connection to Nature and place, and healthy ecosystems capable of sustaining life across generations.
But perhaps we also need to think differently about the livelihoods available to people.
What would it look like to support a growing green care economy, with education and pathways into meaningful, living-wage work that contributes directly to the wellbeing of people, communities, and the places we call Home?
This could include bioregional livelihoods connected to green care, regenerative farming, local food production, age-friendly and nature-connected placemaking, community-based care, conservation, education, and other forms of work rooted in reciprocal relationships with people and place.
For communities heavily dependent upon tourism, developing a wider range of occupational opportunities can generate greater economic resilience. This does not mean diminishing the value of hospitality or tourism work, it means creating more choices and pathways for people to move from low-wage work into work where they have greater opportunities to flourish.
Education and training are part of that transition. How might we support people in developing knowledge and skills that allow them not only to earn a living, but to contribute to the health and wellbeing of their communities?
Preparing for What Comes Next
The recent fires are not the end of this conversation.
The World Meteorological Organization is warning that El Niño may intensify significantly, bringing increased risks of floods, drought, extreme heat, and other disruptions around the world.
For those of us living in Big Sur, preparation is part of life. We get the whole enchilada here: fires, atmospheric rivers, landslides, yes, and road closures.
"The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining" John F. Kennedy
How can we cultivate resilience before the emergency?
How do living wages, affordable housing, universal healthcare, local regenerative food systems, cooperatives, community land and farm trusts, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, relationships with neighbors, bioregional knowledge, and reciprocal experiences of the places we call Home cultivate our ability to flourish, even during climate-related disruptions?
As we live and age in our rapidly climate-changing world, resilience will require more than preparing ourselves for what comes next, it will require transforming the social, economic, and ecological conditions that allow people of all ages, communities, and the living world to flourish together.
"As we flounder from incessant news media transmitting the ruthless violence of authoritarian regimes and corporate power trampling on human dignity, it’s only too easy to surrender to hopelessness about the future. In these moments, it is crucial to realize that the future is not a spectator sport. It is something that we are all co-creating as part of the interconnected web of our collective thoughts, ideas, and actions. The future is not an edifice constructed by others, but by the collective choices each of us makes daily: choices of what to ignore, what to notice, and what to do about it."
—Jeremy Lent, Ecocivilization
