Jessica Howell-Edwards & Dani Purvis: Fighting for the Wild Soul of Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the most ecologically rich and historically layered landscapes on the American East Coast, and it faces a pivotal moment. In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with Jessica Howell-Edwards and Dani Purvis, the volunteer advocates behind Wild Cumberland, to explore what makes this Georgia barrier island so extraordinary and what forces are working to reshape it.Jessica and Dani walk listeners through Cumberland's layered past: from the Timucua people who first called it home, to the plantation economy built on enslaved labor, to the Carnegie family's sweeping land acquisitions in the late 1800s, and ultimately to the island's designation as a National Seashore in 1972. That history, they explain, is not just background. It's the foundation for understanding why the Park Service's current proposals, including a Visitor Use Management Plan that would more than double the daily visitor cap and a proposed land exchange with private inholders, deserve intense scrutiny.The conversation also turns to what makes Cumberland ecologically irreplaceable. The island accounts for eighteen miles of Georgia's undeveloped coastline and hosts between twenty-five and thirty-three percent of the state's sea turtle nests each year, in part because of its rare, nearly uninterrupted darkness. With only 4.7 percent of Georgia in public ownership, Cumberland carries an outsized conservation burden, and both guests make clear that protecting it requires not just passion but process, public engagement, and long-term thinking.Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.