CUMBERLAND ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE NATIONAL ISLANDCUMBERLAND ® a Resourceassessment A
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z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:35 PM Page c1 ® March 2009 CUMBERLAND ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE A Resource Assessment z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:35 PM Page c2 ® Center for State of the Parks ® More than a century ago, Congress established Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. That single act was the beginning of a CONTENTS remarkable and ongoing effort to protect this nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage. Today, Americans are learning that national park designation REPORT SUMMARY 1 alone cannot provide full resource protection. Many parks are compromised by development of adjacent lands, air- and water RESOURCE MANAGEMENT pollution, invasive plants and animals, and rapid increases in motor- ized recreation. Park officials often lack adequate information on the HIGHLIGHTS 4 condition of critical resources. The National Parks Conservation Association initiated the State of RATINGS 6 the Parks program in 2000 to assess the condition of natural and cultural resources and to determine how well equipped the National CUMBERLAND ISLAND Park Service is to protect the parks—its stewardship capacity. The AT A GLANCE 7 goal is to provide information that will help policy-makers, the public, and the National Park Service improve conditions in national parks, celebrate successes as models for other parks, and ensure a KEY FINDINGS 8 lasting legacy for future generations. For more information about the methodology and research used THE CUMBERLAND ISLAND in preparing this report, or to learn more about the Center for ASSESSMENT State of the Parks, visit www.npca.org/stateoftheparks or contact: NATURAL RESOURCES 10 NPCA, Center for State of the Parks, 230 Cherry Street, Suite, 100, CULTURAL RESOURCES 20 Fort Collins, CO 80521; phone: 970.493.2545; email: STEWARDSHIP CAPACITY 36 [email protected]. Since 1919, the National Parks Conservation Association has been APPENDIX: METHODOLOGY 40 the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhanc- ing our National Park System. NPCA, its members, and partners work together to protect the park system and preserve our nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage for generations to come. * More than 325,000 members * Twenty-five regional and field offices * More than 120,000 activists A special note of appreciation goes to those whose generous grants and donations made this report possible: Dorothy Canter, Ben and Ruth Hammett, Lee and Marty Talbot, and anonymous donors. Cover photo of the Boat Captain’s House and the Ice House courtesy of the National Park Service. z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:35 PM Page 1 REPORT SUMMARY ANN FROSCHAUER 1 Cumberland Island National Seashore National Island Cumberland Cumberland Island National Seashore encom- viewing and hiking through wilderness areas. Cumberland Island passes 36,347 acres of barrier island and salt Visitors may also learn about the island’s rich National Seashore’s rich natural resources marsh in southeastern Georgia, just north of history of human habitation and use. are on full display the Florida border. The national seashore As one of the last essentially undeveloped throughout the park’s includes all of Cumberland Island, which has a islands along the Atlantic seaboard, 36,347 acres. total length of 17.5 miles and a width of about Cumberland Island offers visitors the opportu- three miles at its broadest point. It is the largest nity to experience the rich natural resources barrier island in Georgia, offering visitors that once covered much of the Southeast. Much undeveloped sandy beaches, views of the of the park consists of upland habitat, while Atlantic Ocean, and opportunities for wildlife the remainder is salt marsh or submerged land. z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:35 PM Page 2 humans that is the very purpose of wilderness in an area that includes a road and reserved MOLLI SONGCO rights estates. In addition to abundant natural resources, Cumberland Island National Seashore preserves a rich tradition of human use that dates back more than 4,000 years. Evidence of this history is present in archaeological resources that include prehistoric shell middens, mounds, and shell scatter, as well as the remains of historic missions, forts, and 2 slave quarters. Historic structures such as the Plum Orchard Mansion represent the splendor of estates built on the island by prominent families in the late 19th century. Cumberland Island was first recognized as a landscape that warranted preservation in the 1950s, when the State of Georgia formed a committee to explore the possibility of creating a state park on the island. In 1954, the National Park Service identified Cumberland Island as an area of national significance and began to study the possibility of creating a national park Cumberland Island National Seashore National Island Cumberland Cumberland Island’s The beaches and dunes provide nesting habitat unit there. It would take nearly two decades for beaches and sand for numerous species of shorebirds and threat- the necessary funds to be raised and initial dunes provide ened loggerhead sea turtles, while adjacent lands to be acquired before Congress estab- nesting habitat for a host of shorebirds as marine habitats shelter endangered species lished Cumberland Island National Seashore well as the federally such as green and leatherback sea turtles, in 1972. A decade later, Congress designated a listed threatened Florida manatees, and North Atlantic right 9,886-acre wilderness area within the national loggerhead sea turtle. whales. The park is home to one of the largest seashore’s boundaries. This protection guaran- maritime forests in the United States, as well as teed that future uses within this boundary the largest wilderness area in a national would maximize the land’s value for tranquility seashore on the East Coast. A 9,886-acre and as quality habitat for wildlife. portion of the island is federally designated The National Park Service manages the wilderness, with 10,731 acres of potential majority of Cumberland Island, though the wilderness area waiting to be included once State of Georgia has jurisdiction over the tidal certain conditions are met, such as the cessa- beaches and marshlands. There are also several tion of all uses prohibited by the Wilderness tracts of private property on the island, and Act and/or transfer of title to the National Park there are a number of reserved estate parcels Service. The wilderness areas provide valuable within the park’s boundaries. In total, there are habitat for a multitude of species, including 20 private entities as well as the U.S. Navy, U.S. some of those that are federally listed as threat- Army Corps of Engineers, and the aforemen- ened or endangered. It is a management chal- tioned State of Georgia, with entitlement in lenge for the Park Service to provide the isola- one or more parcels of land on the island. With tion, solitude, and absence of the hand of respect to the reserved estate lands, private indi- z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:36 PM Page 3 viduals have agreements with the Park Service Law 108-447), transportation will be expanded that allow them to continue to use the property within the seashore according to a transporta- for private residences for an established period tion management plan that should be finalized of time into the future. Once these retained- in spring of 2009. In addition to removing the rights agreements expire, the inholdings will be island’s main road and two other routes from under the full management of the Park Service. wilderness designation, the legislation Visitors reach Cumberland Island primarily mandated that the Park Service complete a by the concessioner-operated ferry that departs management plan to ensure that not more than the park’s visitor center in St. Marys, Georgia, eight and not fewer than five round-trips are twice each day. They may also travel to the made available daily for the purpose of trans- island via private watercraft. The park currently porting visitors to and from the historic sites does not provide any transportation for visitors located adjacent to wilderness areas. 3 once they reach the island, although bicycles In recognition of the significant natural and may be rented from the park’s sole conces- cultural resources protected within sioner and used only on designated roads (not Cumberland Island National Seashore, the on the beaches, hiking trails, or within the National Parks Conservation Association’s wilderness boundaries). As a result, most visita- Center for State of the Parks conducted an tion is concentrated on the southern end of the assessment to determine current conditions of island where the ferry boats and the majority of those resources. This report contains the results private watercraft dock. However, with the of that assessment. 2004 enactment of the Cumberland Island Wilderness Boundary Adjustment Act (Public The park’s main road Seashore National Island Cumberland runs north-south through much of the island. Upon comple- tion of the park’s NATIONAL PARK SERVICE transportation management plan, scheduled for spring of 2009, tours to Plum Orchard, the First African Baptist Church, and other historic sites on the north end of the island will be offered daily. z6326_NPCA.qxd:GRBA 3/27/09 1:36 PM Page 4 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT HIGHLIGHTS • Sea turtles protected. The park uses considering making Plum Orchard into a interns from the Student Conservation historic house museum, which would Association during the summer to help enable visitors to better imagine the lives protect sea turtle nests—mostly those of of some of the island’s past inhabitants. loggerheads—on Cumberland Island. • Park works to preserve African- These interns identify new nests each American history. Park staff are working morning, document their location, cover to stabilize and preserve the Stafford them with wire screen to prevent intrusion Chimneys, which are the remains of quar- by predators such as hogs and raccoons, ters that housed enslaved Africans during and keep track of the nests until the eggs 4 the plantation era.