Burgum is pushing another federal land swap at Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, just like the one at Yosemite. Both use the same move: hand federal park land to private interests, funded in part by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, money meant for conservation. Two wealthy families want to trade land with the Park Service so they can build up to 15 private homes, some up to 15,000 sq ft, inside wilderness Congress said in 1972 must stay "permanently preserved in its primitive state." It's loggerhead sea turtle nesting ground, home to 30% of Georgia's total, plus four other protected sea turtle species, red knots, and piping plovers. A watchdog group had to FOIA the draft deed terms just to see them. Georgia's own Camden County Commission wouldn't endorse the deal. A former Yosemite superintendent called that deal "so ridiculous, it makes you sick." Here's the mechanism. The Land and Water Conservation Fund exists specifically to buy and protect public land, funded by offshore oil and gas royalties, as an environmental offset for that drilling. Burgum's Interior has been trying to redirect that same money away from buying conservation land and toward "deferred maintenance" instead. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) says that diversion is illegal and expects it to get sued over. So the fund meant to protect land from exactly this kind of loss is being hollowed out, then tapped again to help pay private developers to take park land in the first place. This isn't one bad deal. It's a pattern. How many other national parks does this admin have waiting in the pipeline, ready to be sliced off to private interests? Tell NPS this shouldn't move forward funded by conservation dollars it was never meant to touch. We don't have much time. Link is in the first reply. #DemsUnited