Daytrippin: A visit to Cumberland Island + A history lesson on the Georgia Conservancy’s long fight to protect Cumberland
Last weekend I stepped outside of Savannah to experience a different side of the Georgia Coast. Less than two hours down I-95 sits one of America’s great coastal treasures just off the coast of St. Marys. Once home to the world’s wealthiest, Cumberland Island greets visitors with pristine white sand beaches, undisturbed maritime forests, sand dunes dotted with sea oats, and historical ruins as evidence of the island’s legacy from the Golden Era.
I can think of no better way to spend a day than to ride a beat-up rented beach cruiser up and down the expansive packed sand of Cumberland with the Atlantic to my left and the rolling dunes to my right. Aside from an unfortunately sited factory visible from the southend of the island, there is little evidence of human impact as far as the eye can see. On the island’s interior the evidence is slight - a collection of homes and historical relics of once-homes dot the largess of Cumberland, trails meander north from the two docks where visitors off-load from the ferries, and campers pitch their tents in groomed sites run by the National Park Service.
The day was not without its challenges. The heat on the interior was oppressive, the washboarded trails threatened to destabilize my clunker bike, and the sun scorched my back. But there wasn’t a moment - not one single moment - that I wasn’t awestruck by the beauty of this precious place and thankful for its protection. Which brings to mind my day job with the Georgia Conservancy, an organization long dedicated to protecting Cumberland. And that, my friends, brings me to a little history lesson.
In thanks to Cumberland, the gracious hostess that she it, for a Saturday well spent, I’d like to encourage you to learn about her tumultuous history and engage in the ongoing fight to protect the integrity of her wilderness. Of course, you simply must see it for yourself. Until then…
The Worth of Wilderness: Georgia Conservancy’s Fight to Protect Cumberland Island
Wilderness savant Edward Abbey once said, “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” Though Abbey is better known as a controversial environmental author, advocate, and oft-labeled misanthrope, he captures the heart behind the Georgia Conservancy’s watchful eye over Cumberland Island.
In 1972, the Conservancy made history through our role in establishing Cumberland as a national seashore. In fact, the Conservancy’s Coastal Office cut its teeth on the initiative to protect Cumberland Island. That accomplishment was piggybacked a decade later when the Conservancy contributed to the design of the Cumberland wilderness plan, which became law in 1982. While only Mother Nature is worthy of credit for the majestic beauty of Georgia’s southernmost barrier island, the Conservancy can claim a stake in the legacy that remains.
Hans Neuhauser, former Coastal Director of the Georgia Conservancy, played an instrumental role in the ’72 and ’82 Cumberland Island interventions. He captures the essence and spirit of the island in his 2003 testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
“[Cumberland Island] is a place of great spiritual value, a place for re-creation as well as recreation. It is a magical place, its beauty inspirational. Nowhere else in the world will a person – a citizen without special connections or wealth – be able to have the wilderness experience of the type offered by Cumberland. The wilderness experience is unique.”
Neuhauser’s sentiments reflect a stewardship principle based on the scarcity, and the rarity of wilderness, especially in the eastern United States. In addition to wilderness, Cumberland Island provides an intertwining of cultural, historical, and natural beauty—and a legacy of human habitation. Some see this mix as proof that Cumberland should be more accessible, and plans for motorized trips into the wilderness have been approved by Congress. To do this, Congress delisted
roads as wilderness. Not only an incursion into Cumberland, this sets a terrible precedent nationwide as apparently no federal wilderness is inviolate.
The Georgia Conservancy continues to believe that Cumberland Island’s wilderness, the last coastal maritime wilderness on the eastern seaboard, is literally irreplaceable. Unfortunately, motorized trips through the wilderness are as oxymoronic and as they are bad resource management. While we recognize the argument that publicly-owned areas lose value if the public cannot readily access them, the inconvenient and remote are two intrinsic wilderness values.
Yes, we’re talking about wilderness for the sake of wilderness. Citing Abbey, once more, “The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.”
However defensible, the intrinsic worth of an unspoiled parcel of paradise mocks the question “Why Wilderness?” The answer is larger than we are.
Why Wilderness? Because the world isn’t magnificent simply because we are in it. And the entirety of nature isn’t masterful and orchestrated simply because we witness it. There is a life to wilderness that exists without our feeble contributions: It breathes, beats, shudders, dies, chatters, smiles, and unfurls, oblivious to our presumed subjugation. Cumberland Island is a testament to that reality. Surely, we can save a few precious places such as this intact.
In the words of Will Harlan, ally to Cumberland and to the Georgia Conservancy, “[Cumberland] is an island immemorial, where the story of creation continues in golden stalks of sea oats and centuries-old live oaks.”
