Stop the Cumberland Island Land Swaps
The National Park Service is considering two land exchanges within Cumberland Island National Seashore that would trade public land for private land — and allow the development of eight 15,000 square-foot mansions on the island.
Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the largest barrier islands in the United States, home to ancient live oak forests and nesting beaches for endangered sea turtles and shorebirds.
This unique island is one of the last wild places on the East Coast, and the National Park Service has a legislative duty to protect it.
Cumberland Island was designated by Congress so it would be "preserved in its primitive state." The proposed land swaps betray this commitment by allowing increased development of the seashore and violating the island's congressional mandate.
More broadly, these proposed deals could help set a dangerous precedent for letting private commercial interests dictate the future of protected public lands. The Park Service announced the Cumberland Island land exchanges and their corresponding environmental assessment less than two weeks after proposing a land swap that would allow private access to Yosemite National Park.
Cumberland Island is a national treasure that belongs to the American people.
Tell the Park Service these land exchanges are unacceptable and undermine Congress's clear intent to protect this sensitive coastal habitat.
Speak Up for Cumberland Island National Seashore:
The National Park Service is currently accepting comments on this plan, and taking action is easy.
Visit the National Park Service website, provide your information in the form, and enter a comment. Then hit Submit.
Here's a suggested comment you can enter into the form. Feel free to personalize your comment to explain why this issue matters to you.
I oppose the land exchanges proposed in the Voluntary Land Exchange Environmental Assessment for Cumberland Island National Seashore (project ID 124458).
Congress created Cumberland Island National Seashore in 1972 in order for the island to be “preserved in its primitive state.” The proposed land exchanges described in the environmental assessment move in the opposite direction, allowing permanent development of the seashore.
For example, the land exchanges would allow for eight massive buildings — up to 15,000 square feet — to be built and would carve out a privately owned beach pavilion and private road to the beach for exclusive use by the development. These exchanges would let private landowners permanently reside in a national park unit and drive vehicles throughout the island.
Allowing these land exchanges would be a direct violation of the island’s congressional mandate, a violation of public trust, and an alarming rollback of decades of public conservation efforts.
Additionally, these land exchanges threaten the existence of several endangered and threatened species and their habitats. The seashore and wilderness areas protect marshland, forests, dunes, and beaches. The island provides essential habitat for shorebirds like red knots and piping plovers, as well as five species of federally protected sea turtles. Loggerhead sea turtles — an endangered species with critical habitat on Cumberland's eastern shoreline — nest on these beaches, which account for 30% of all nests in Georgia.
The National Park Service should *not* allow for the increased and permanent development of the seashore through these land exchanges. The exchanges aren’t equal in value and seek to benefit a handful of private property owners without any real benefit to the seashore and its wilderness. These plans also come at the expense of the American public, which values the national seashore for its peaceful and wild state, as well as the wildlife who rely on its habitats for survival.
I urge you to reconsider these land exchanges and reflect on the congressional intent of the seashore's enabling legislation: for the island to become wilder over time — not more developed.
Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth
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