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Mission 27 · Cumberland Island National Seashore, GA

Cumberland Island land exchange

Cumberland Island National Seashore

The agency files it as “Voluntary Land Exchange Environmental Assessment - Cumberland Island National Seashore”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on October 16. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

What to go and check

On Cumberland Island, walk the old roads and photograph the human traces still standing: house foundations, chimneys, fence lines, graveyards and headstones, planted yard trees. Date every shot; your location goes into the sealed record, never the public page.

The decision

The National Park Service is evaluating a voluntary land exchange at Cumberland Island National Seashore, which would transfer privately held land within or adjacent to the park's boundaries in exchange for federal land. This kind of deal can expand protected acreage and consolidate conservation holdings, but it can also open previously protected land to private development depending on the terms.

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Don’t touch, move, collect or disturb anything. Ever.
  2. 02Photograph what you see from where you stand. Don’t dig, brush away or reposition.
  3. 03Don’t post these photographs anywhere. Submit them here only; they go into a sealed record.
  4. 04Write down what you saw and, if you know, what it is.
What would count
  • A photograph in the sealed record, with the location held under the confidentiality the law provides.
  • Nothing public. The public card will say only that a sensitive observation exists.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.