Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the last truly wild barrier islands on the East Coast, home to ancient live oak forests, wild horses, and the beaches where more loggerhead sea turtles nest than anywhere else in Georgia. The National Park Service is now proposing to trade away park land there so private developers can build eight mansions up to three stories tall and 15,000 square feet each, complete with a private beach pavilion and a private road for exclusive use.

Congress created this national seashore in 1972 with the intent that it grow wilder over time, not more developed. This land swap moves in the opposite direction, letting private landowners live permanently inside a national park unit while construction and new traffic disrupt nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles and shorebirds. It also follows a nearly identical proposal for private development inside Yosemite National Park, raising fears that national parks are becoming bargaining chips instead of protected public land.

"This is an American national park, not a Monopoly board. A bunch of new mansions don't belong here," said Will Harlan, Southeast director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "These land swaps are an attack on the American people who own this public land."

Nearly 3,000 people have already submitted comments opposing these exchanges, but the Park Service has kept moving forward anyway. Cumberland Island belongs to the public, not to a handful of private buyers. Sign the petition to demand the National Park Service withdraw the Cumberland Island land swap proposal before construction and private ownership permanently change this wilderness.