We need your help to protect Cumberland Island and to preserve what is so precious and rare there – eastern, coastal wilderness where one can find solitude and peace in deep maritime forest.

Background: Cumberland Island National Seashore is Georgia’s largest barrier island and is one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands in the world. Much of the island is federally designated Wilderness, a relative rarity in the eastern United States. Coming over only 300 per day, more than 50,000 people visit Cumberland every year for its wilderness, its wide, quiet beaches, and its deep maritime forest.

Problem: In the fall of 2003, Rep. Jack Kingston attached a rider to the budget bill that removed the wilderness designation from several roads on Cumberland Island and required that the National Park Service provide at least 5 vehicle tours each day through the Wilderness to the north end of the island. The Park Service is now requesting input on the plan that will govern those tours. While environmental advocacy organizations remain opposed to the tours because their mere existence will negatively impact Cumberland’s wilderness experience, the details of the plan have yet to be developed and much can still be done to minimize that impact. Therefore, it is critically important that the public urge the Park Service to adopt a plan that will have the least impact to the Wilderness and the island’s natural resources.

Solution: In developing the transportation plan, the National Park Service should seek only to meet the minimum requirements of the legislation and minimize the impacts on Cumberland Island’s natural resources, its Wilderness, and its wilderness experience.

Action Needed: Please address your comments to John Fry, National Park Service, P.O. Box 806, St Marys, GA 31558 and urge them to develop a plan that has the least impact on Cumberland Island’s Wilderness and wilderness experience. Plans can also be made on the web at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=16447. Click on Documents Open for Public Comment near the bottom of the page.

Respond By: September 1, 2006.

Sample Letter:

Dear National Park Service:

I am writing to encourage you to develop a transportation plan for vehicle trips to the north end of Cumberland Island that will minimize the impacts of those trips on Cumberland’s Wilderness and natural resources and the quiet wilderness experience that so many people seek there.

While I continue to oppose the existence of these trips and the legislation that mandates them, I also want to ensure that, if these tours are going to happen, they have the least impact possible on the island. For all issues – route, type of vehicle, number of tours, number and location of stops – the Park Service should seek to meet the literal and minimum requirements of the legislation and adopt those options that will minimize the effect of the tours on Cumberland’s natural resources, its Wilderness, and its wilderness experience. Extensive driving on Cumberland’s beaches is not part of the legislative mandate to the NPS.

Finally, I urge that the Park Service run these tours and that this transportation plan not create any private economic interests that will result in pressure to make the island open to more visitors. Cumberland’s distinctiveness is the opportunity it offers for a unique, tranquil, coastal wilderness experience. Please do not let this plan change that any more than is necessary to meet the minimum requirements.

Sincerely,

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