National MallHappy President’s Day! Speaking of presidents, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant all have monuments on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  Established in 1965, the National Mall and Memorial Parks protects some of the older parkland in the National Park System and accomdates 24 million visitors a year.

Recently, the National Park Service unveiled the Draft National Mall Plan and Environmental Impact Statement which aims to, amongst other things, “address the needs of visitors for access, enjoyment, education,
recreation, facilities and services; and improve park operations.” The planning team has developed a set of five management alternatives that describe different visions for how the National Mall could be
managed to achieve this goal.

While they don’t plan to drastically change the Mall, they are looking for public input on the plan until March 18. You don’t have to go to the Mall to provide input either. They have webpages with the complete plan, pictures/video of the monuments and of course a robust online survey.

How do you think the National Park Service could manage the National Mall better?