How might Cumberland Island National Seashore be impacted by a proposed land exchange/NPS file

On its face it sounds like a good move: engineer land swaps to remove private parcels from within Cumberland Island National Seashore. But that proposal (attached below) is raising fears the exchanges could accelerate development on the barrier island off the coast of Georgia.

As proposed, the national seashore would add nearly 400 acres to the seashore. How much land the Park Service would relinquish in exchange remains to be determined.

However, in comments filed (attached below) on the proposal the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks worried the exchange would lead to further development on the seashore as it would potentially open other lands within the national seashore to exploitation.

"The proposed land exchanges seem to be based on the idea that consolidation of development would be an asset in administering the park," the Coalition wrote to Cumberland Island Superintendent Melissa Trenchik in commenting on the proposal. "However, without restrictions consistent with the authorizing legislation, the essence of the seashore as a wilderness and a place where a visitor can enjoy isolation and solitude could be lost. Allowing for the possibility of new private development within the seashore would reverse half a century of investment by the federal government and by countless people who have worked together to protect this priceless resource."

Wild Cumberland, a nonprofit organization that advocates for preservation of nature in the national seashore, also expressed its concerns (attached below) with the proposed exchange, maintaining that the public hasn't been given enough information to weigh the proposal. For example, the group said in its comments, the proposal doesn't specify how many acres the national seashore would lose in the exchange, doesn't include valuation figures, lacks any identification or delineation of “Potential Wilderness” boundaries, and would "ultimately create a nearly 3-mile corridor of private use and potential development."

Read about visitation pressures at Cumberland Island National Seashore.

In addition, Wild Cumberland said, the proposal does not identify other lands that potentially could be added to the national seashore, including nearly 175 acres The Nature Conservancy has held for more than two decades that could be added to the seashore.

"Why isn't the NPS focused on the expiration of retained rights and returning [Cumberland Island National Seashore] to a 'primitive, undeveloped' condition, as intended? The proposed land exchange will allow more, and likely unrestricted, development," the group claimed. "The stated purpose of [the national seashore] is 'to maintain the primitive, undeveloped character of one of the largest and most ecologically diverse barrier islands on the Atlantic coast, while preserving scenic, scientific, and historical values and providing outstanding opportunities for outdoor recreation and solitude.'"

In opposing the exchange in its current form, the Coalition urged the superintendent to "provide a complete analysis of alternatives and the direct, indirect and reasonably foreseeable impacts in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) so that the public can properly assess the impacts of the proposed land exchanges."

How the National Park Service is managing the seashore has been controversial in recent years.

Back in 2022 park officials were open to more than doubling the allowable number of visitors to the park that straddles Georgia's largest barrier island, a decision that raised concerns that the Park Service was straying from the very reasons behind the seashore's establishment back in 1972. More recently, the Park Service has been involved in litigation aimed at removing the 100-150 feral horses on the season — the agency has opposed such a move — and now the debate over the proposed land swap. 

Read about the lawsuit aimed at removing feral horses from Cumberland Island.

Cumberland Island offers an unusual mix of cultural, historical, and natural resource features. The Dungeness Historic Area interprets the ruins of a mansion built in 1884 for Thomas Carnegie (the younger brother and business partner of Andrew Carnegie), his wife Lucy, and their 9 children. The 22,000-square-foot Plum Orchard Mansion was built in 1898 as a wedding gift for George Lauder Carnegie and Margaret Thaw and is open for tours.

There are acres and acres of maritime forest that harbor live oaks draped with Spanish moss that rise over an understory of Saw palmetto, hollies, grapevine, and Virginia creeper, while white-tailed deer, armadillos, feral horses, and wild hogs roam the island. There are roughly 18 miles of beachline that attract loggerhead turtles for nesting; on the northern end of the island stands the First African Baptist Church, which was built in 1893. 

Under the national seashore's general management plan, which was adopted in 1984, daily visitation to the park has been held to "approximately 300 people per day." However, the Park Service has been considering a proposal to more than double that through improved access via the Dungeness and Sea Camp docks, and another 100 people per day to the Plum Orchard dock if ferry service was available.