East Coast viewers get a chance this holiday weekend to update themselves with national parks and monuments in the greater metropolitan area of New York City via public television station WNET, Channel 13.

A recent Miami Herald article on manatee research in the Everglades does a good job of identifying some of the questions that still need to be answered with regard to this fascinating but still poorly understood species. However, the question of a major cause of manatee deaths within the boundaries of Everglades National Park is already well documented.

Thousands of folks trek to the top of Half Dome each summer. Their footprints have created a well-worn path up past Vernal and Nevada falls and onto the granite behemoth. Which begs the question: Does Half Dome offer visitors a wilderness experience?

Though a veritable youngster in the national park realm, Congaree National Park is a vegetative museum, harboring some of the eastern United States' tallest trees in what's said to be the largest old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the country.