On wild Cumberland Island, a land swap proposal stirs controversy

A wild horse grazes on whatever food it can find on Cumberland Island, Ga. on Oct 8, 2026. The National Park Service, which has managed the island since 1972, recently proposed a land swap with descendants of Thomas Carnegie, the wealthy Gilded Age industrialist who built homes on the island.

Visitors, ecologists, park rangers and residents all love this wild barrier island off the coast of southern Georgia. But they have different ideas of how to best protect it.

(Image credit: Malcolm Jackson for NPR)