One topic has been glaringly absent from the building presidential campaign: the use and management of the United States' public lands. Unless the two major political parties are entirely tone-deaf, they might want to start touching on that topic from time to time, according to a poll that shows overwhelming support for conservation of those lands.

An international roundup of global national park news

Saturday was a black day for Yankee fans, as National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis traveled to Boston to add Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, to the National Register of Historic Places.

Stretches of road elsewhere in the country are as spectacular, but nothing matches the manicured, uniquely uncommercialized, half-a-thousand-mile thoroughfare of the Blue Ridge Parkway through the lofty heart of America’s first frontier. The scenery is great, but equally memorable is the encounter with history and traditional Appalachian culture and music.