Most Americans woke up Friday with three new national monuments in the country. Located in California, the three -- Castle Mountains National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument, and Mojave Trails National Monument -- were all hewn from federal lands and long have been called for by U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein.

There is a collision, perhaps in slow motion, involving the National Park System. It's a collision of technology, of surrounding growth, of generational differences in how to experience nature. For the sake of the parks, how the National Park Service reacts to that collision arguably is more critical now than ever before in the first 100 years of the agency.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, an art exhibit at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., will showcase some of the plant species and communities found throughout the more than 400 national parks.

Objects left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that have no direct connection to a Vietnam veteran or to the Vietnam War would not be added to the memorial's permanent collection under a proposal being considered by the National Park Service.