Spring 2019 Public Comment Summary Report: Cumberland Island National Seashore Visitor Use Management Plan

From March 26 through May 12, 2019, the National Park Service (NPS) held a public comment period to receive feedback on draft strategies for future visitor use management of Cumberland Island National Seashore.

To inform the public of the draft strategies under consideration and provide an update on the planning effort, a newsletter was released on March 27 that described the key issues, planning time line, draft strategies, prompting questions, and instructions for how to comment. The newsletter was made available on the project website (parkplanning.nps.gov/cuis) and was sent to interested parties by mail and e-mail.

In addition to the newsletter, National Park Service staff hosted two public listening sessions to provide interested members of the public an opportunity to learn more about the planning effort and share their ideas. The first was held at St. Marys, Georgia, on April 12 and the second was held in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 13.

A total of 73 people attended the two public listening sessions. The availability of the newsletter; the length of the comment period; and the dates, times, and locations for the public listening sessions were publicized by a media release issued on March 27, posts on the park's Facebook page, updates to the park's website, and flyers posted in St. Marys and Atlanta.

While the full breadth of comments received is summarized in this comment summary report, the following paragraphs provide a brief summary of the most commonly heard opinions and suggestions.

Overall, a large number of the comments received (about half) included comments on the topics of visitor use and visitor experience. Many commenters expressed that they would like to see Cumberland Island retain its current primitive character. Commenters also provided a range of thoughts and opinions about how many people per day could be on the island. About a third of the commenters provided comments about use levels, supporting infrastructure, and other issues related to managing visitor use of the island wilderness area. More comments opposed changing the island use levels than supported it.

Approximately one-fifth of the correspondences included comments related to potential commercial services on the island or other thoughts on what commercial services should or should not be available on the island and where they should be located. Also, approximately one-fifth of correspondences include comments about camping options, both in campgrounds and backcountry camping. While a variety of comments were provided concerning new or potential changes to camping, there was little support for campfires in backcountry campsites and strong support for allowing boats in campsites.

Document Content:

CUIS VUM Public Comment Summary Report_2019_508.pdf   (2.2 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.