The Cumberland Island National Seashore is a national treasure that is enjoyed by over 60,000 visitors per year. The Board of Commissioners of Camden County, Georgia is attempting to obtain a license from the FAA for a commercial spaceport that will require rockets to be launched directly over the National Seashore. This ill-advised plan puts the Cumberland Island National Seashore in peril from exploding rockets, environmental contamination and other significant risks. The proposed spaceport would be the first spaceport in the United States where rockets are launched over a national park with active visitation and private homes.
The U.S. National Park Service has raised concerns as to the impact the proposed spaceport may have on federally protected migratory birds and endangered marine species. The Cumberland Island National Seashore is home to a number of federally protected migratory birds, shorebirds and endangered marine species, including Bald eagles, Piping plovers, Wood storks, Loggerhead sea turtles, Green sea turtles, Leatherback sea turtles, Kemp's Ridley sea turtles, North Atlantic Right whales, Humpback whales and West Indian manatees.
Cumberland Island National Seashore is also home to five historic districts. The well-known First African Baptist Chuch, that was established in 1893 by African-Americans that were born into slavery and freed after the Civil War, is directly under the proposed launch trajectories.
For more information, visit: www.protectcumberlandisland.org
