The public comment period on a proposed federal land exchange at Cumberland Island National Seashore closes Friday, Oct. 16. Cumberland Island sits just across the St. Marys River from Amelia Island, reachable by ferry from Fernandina Beach.

The National Park Service (NPS) is weighing two land swaps that would transfer about 80 contiguous acres of federally owned seashore into private ownership. The beneficiaries are descendants of the Carnegie and Rockefeller families who hold property on the island, according to an opinion piece by Fernandina Beach resident Rebecca Purington published Oct. 11 in the Fernandina Observer.

In the first exchange, trustees Ledyard H. McFadden and Nancy McFadden Cannon would trade a 10-acre wilderness inholding for 20 acres of buildable, marsh-front federal land along Grand Avenue. In the second, Lucy Foster Flight and Franklin "Whit" Foster would trade roughly 119 acres of remote interior tracts for 60 acres of prime federal land next to the McFadden parcel.

The 81-page NPS environmental assessment states that 80% of the privately acquired land would be designated a conservation area. The remaining 20% could be used for single-family homes with a maximum footprint of 15,000 square feet and a height limit of 35 feet, according to a Snopes fact-check published Sept. 19.

Any land leaving federal ownership would carry permanent conservation easements prohibiting subdivision and limiting development, according to the NPS planning portal. NPS Superintendent Melissa Trenchik said when the comment period opened Sept. 9 that the exchanges would "safeguard sensitive habitats" and "preserve the island's wilderness character."

A Department of the Interior spokesperson told Snopes that no final decision has been made. The spokesperson said the deals would bring "sensitive private parcels in the heart of the island into the National Park Service system, where they would be protected from commercial development."

Conservation groups have opposed the exchanges. The Center for Biological Diversity reported that the NPS had already received nearly 3,000 opposing comments as of Sept. 16. The group noted that Cumberland Island hosts 30% of Georgia's loggerhead sea turtle nests.

Carol Ruckdeschel, a biologist who has lived on Cumberland Island for 50 years, told the Fernandina Observer in September: "This new plan is taking public land that the park has already acquired and giving it to private people to build on with no expiration date."

Defenders of Wildlife said its Freedom of Information Act requests showed the NPS negotiated key terms before conducting environmental reviews or opening public comment.

Preliminary land exchange agreements have already been signed, the Fernandina Observer reported Sept. 29. The final step requires approval by the U.S. Congress.

Cumberland Island was acquired by the federal government in 1972 and designated a National Seashore. More than two-thirds of the island is federally designated wilderness.

Comments can be submitted online at the NPS Park Planning portal or by mail to: Cumberland Island National Seashore, Attn: Proposed Lands Exchange EA, 101 Wheeler St., St. Marys, GA 31558.