The National Park Service floated the idea of making land swaps with some private land owners at Cumberland Island National Seashore about 18 months ago. It held a virtual public meeting in September 2024 and collected written public comment, but that was the extent of the public-facing discussion of the proposed exchanges.
Until now.
Last month Cumberland Island’s Superintendent, Melissa Trenchik, wrote to Interim Camden County Administrator Joey Yacobacci requesting the county’s blessing on two of the proposed swaps. On Tuesday, the Camden County Commission rejected a letter of support for the exchanges.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Trenchik explained that Interior Department required a letter of support from the governor and the county before it could proceed to the next stage of the process, which would include an environmental assessment.
The Park Service says the proposed action is needed to “acquire a relatively contiguous corridor of privately owned land within core areas of the Seashore to improve manageability of these areas, preserve important resources, and prevent further development on these inholdings.”
Sand dunes on the beach on Cumberland Island. On October 27, 2024.
Cumberland is the largest and southernmost of Georgia’s barrier islands. It’s treasured for its sandy beaches scattered with driftwood “boneyards,” for its maritime forest of twisted oaks, and for crumbling ruins of its gilded age mansion. Established as a national seashore in 1972, much of Cumberland is a designated wilderness, but about 1,000 acres of private land remains.
“By exchanging property with these landowners, the NPS would seek to relocate private interests to other areas where it is more appropriate and less impactful on visitors,” the NPS explained in 2024.
Too many unknowns
Many in the public learned about the requested approval letter last week when it appeared on the commission agenda. The response was swift, with the county receiving more than 500 emails urging the board to at least postpone its decision, Commissioner Jim Goodman told his colleagues. The board also received feedback from prominent environmental groups saying there are too many unknowns in the NPS proposal for Camden to back it.
In a six-page letter sent Tuesday, the Southern Environmental Law Center detailed its concerns that the “proposal lacks critical information about the proposed land exchanges.”
“Left unanswered are basic factual details of the proposed exchanges, like how many acres of publicly owned land the Park Service intends to convey to private landowners,” SELC Staff Attorney Zachary Hennessee wrote to the commission. “Also unanswered are fundamental legal questions, like whether and how the proposal is consistent with Congress’s legislative mandate to ‘preserve’ the island in its ‘primitive state’.”
SELC offered its comment to the board on behalf of itself, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Center for Biological Diversity, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, National Parks Conservation Association, and Wild Cumberland.
Camden resident Steve Weinkle spoke at length to the commission, opposing the land swaps. He noted that the NPS was moving forward with these deals even though it had not accomplished the purchase of Nature Conservancy land on the island even though $8.7 million of Congressional funding has been in place for that purchase for three years. He fears commercial development on the swapped land.
“I would not be so angry about all of this if the National Park Service said we’re going to get a 100-year prohibition for any kind of commercial development of any sort on the property we acquire,” he said. “That would be fine. Those (private owners) would disappear. Their trade would never happen. The only purpose in this trade is to take two widely separated properties, combine them into one larger property that has a road to the main road and an existing National Park Service dock.”
Katherine Sayler, Southeast representative of Defenders of Wildlife gave comments at the meeting, telling the board they did not have sufficient information, especially about how the exchange would affect future development.
“We still have a lot of unanswered questions,” she said.
After the meeting, Sayler told The Current GA that her organization had been told recently by the National Park Service that staff were too busy with its Visitor Use Management Plan to move forward with the land swaps.
The commission’s vote ended consideration of the issue for now. But Commissioner Ben Casey advised that it could be considered again at a future meeting.
The NPS information sent to the county is here, beginning on page 29.
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