A federal judge has ruled that the aging Highway 601 bridge over the Congaree River in South Carolina can be replaced without correcting environmentally harmful features of the causeway-like bridge approach built on a floodplain now within Congaree National Park.

Earlier this week we had a spirited discussion of whether the National Park Service needs to add a site to honor Cesar Chavez, who orchestrated the farm labor movement in the 1960s. That discussion nips at a larger question: Has Congress led the Park Service astray and turned it into a catchall agency?

Though few people seem to know or care, Michigan's long-ago abolished Mackinac National Park was America's second national park. Yellowstone got there first, but not by much.

To help encourage folks to get out and enjoy National Great Outdoors Month in June, a wide array of campgrounds across the country, many close to national parks, are offering a 20 percent discount on camping fees.