Cumberland Island National Seashore and Wilderness is the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard and one of the gems of America’s National Park system. Massive live oak maritime forests, saltwater marshes, and a spectacular white sand beach—home to loggerhead sea turtles—are remarkable to experience. But Cumberland needs your help now.
The National Park Service is accepting public comments on its Visitor Use Management Plan (VUMP) through February 21. The plan seeks to maximize visitor numbers and recreation at the expense of the Cumberland Island Wilderness and its wild inhabitants. Once the private enclave of wealthy families, the federal government acquired the Island and established the Cumberland Island National Seashore in the 1960s to save it from real estate development like that which had beset many of the barrier islands. In 1982, Congress designated much of the Island’s northern two-thirds as the Cumberland Island Wilderness, or as potential Wilderness in areas where private existing rights would eventually expire. Already quite a treasure, Cumberland Island was on the path to wild restoration and becoming one of the premier Wildernesses in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Tragically, the National Park Service (NPS) has failed to keep the promise of a wild Cumberland Island. Under the new management plan, the allowed daily visitor use would more than double from 300 to 700, including new ferry service to the wilderness boundary at Plum Orchard. It would also expand e-bike access across Cumberland Island. Under this management plan, the Park Service would create two new campsites in Wilderness. The new plan would expand guided backpacking trips, kayak rentals, and developed campsites in Wilderness, prioritizing recreation access over wildness. Degradation to areas adjacent to the wilderness boundary would have negative impacts on important habitat for migratory birds such as piping plover. This includes digging thousands of feet of trenches for water and electricity, as well as a 1,200-square-foot septic leach. Unfortunately, the NPS VUMP fails to maintain…”the primitive, undeveloped character of one of the largest and most ecologically diverse barrier islands on the Atlantic coast,” as the law intended. The plan allows a substantial increase in visitor numbers and amenities and a transition from a relatively primitive experience to a more developed tourist experience. Please tell the National Park Service by February 21 to protect and restore Cumberland to a more wild and primitive condition, with development limited to the southern non-wilderness part of the island and only to the extent necessary to administer the Island and protect its natural and cultural values.
Submit your comments online here: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=148113
Write in your own words, but consider including the following points: -
Ban motorized or mechanized vehicle use, including bicycles and ebikes, north of the southern boundary of the Wilderness, except for those with private existing rights. -
Maintain the current limit of 300 visitors per day to the Island. -
Do not establish ferry service to Plum Orchard. -
Do not expand commercial services on the island. -
Do not create any new developed campgrounds in Wilderness. -
All NPS decisions should promote restoring a wild Cumberland Island, and this includes prioritizing Wilderness and the wild things that live there over intensively expanding recreation. NPS decisions should reflect proper restraint on recreation impacts. -
Given the extent of the changes proposed and the potential for negative impacts, NPS absolutely must develop an Environmental Impact Statement. |
|
Help us protect Cumberland Island and Wilderness around the country. A generous member will DOUBLE all first-time donations up to $30,000 in 2026. |
|
