Environmental groups sue to stop tours on Cumberland Island

ATLANTA - Three conservation groups sued the National Park Service Monday to try to stop vanload tourists from driving in federally protected areas on Georgia&#39;s Cumberland Island. <br> <br> The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by Wilderness Watch, Defenders of Wild Cumberland and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. <br> <br> Arthur Frederick, the Cumberland Island superintendent, said the Park Service will stop taking vans full of tourists into the protected wilderness this year as part of new management guidelines being developed. <br> <br> The guidelines are expected to be in place in about six months. <br> <br> Tourists will continue to visit the protected north end of the island, the site of a historic black settlement, but will be taken by boat instead. <br> <br> But the Greyfield Inn, a resort hotel on the island, is allowed to continue tours because it was grandfathered when the area was designated a national wilderness in 1982.